Category: Literature The Novel and The Screenplay

Robert Wise’s The Haunting (1963) “Help Eleanor Come Home”

Robert Wise’s cinematic masterpiece adapted from the Shirley Jackson novel The Haunting of Hill House. Starring Julie Harris as Eleanor Lance the queen of the inner monologue.

The-Haunting-1963
Here’s Theodora (Claire Bloom) the stylish sapphic with keen esp & the repressed Eleanor (Julie Harris) who just needs to belong somewhere, even if it’s with the dead!

My song “The Habits of Shadows” appears on my album Fools and Orphans.

With special appearance on backing vocals by the incredible Hannah Fury! Also featuring the stirring performance on upright bass by Mark Urness.

MonsterGirl ( JoGabriel )

The Man Who Laughs 1928 Conrad Veidt’s Gwynplaine and The Eternal Smile

The Man Who Laughs 1928 Directed by Paul Leni and starring the outre emotive Conrad Veidt as the tragic  Gwynplaine and the lovely Mary Philbin as Dea, the blind girl who touches his carved smile with her love.

Gwynplaine is one of my favorite characters in literature, one of Hugo’s more obscure works, Leni captured his soul in  his film with the help of Veidt, perfectly!

Based on Victor Hugo’s novel “L’Homme Qui Rit”

Jo Gabriel’s song “Hold My Breath” appears on my album ISLAND through Kalinkaland Records world wide.

MonsterGirl (JoGabriel)

Roger Corman’s Masque of The Red Death(1964): Vincent Price’s Prospero & A Ball to Stave off Death

Roger Corman’s Superb Adaptation of Poe’s story. Vincent Price as always the Master of the Macabre as Prince Prospero.

Jo Gabriel’s song “Masque of The Red Death” appears on my album The Last Drive In

MonsterGirl  (JoGabriel)

The Twilight Zone: The Hitchhiker & “Hello It’s Me”

This is my cover to the iconic song of the 70s Todd Rundgren’s “Hello It’s Me”

I find myself often weepy about the good ole 70s, here’s a tribute to those dreamy hazy days filled with possibility and passion. I might even get myself some eagle feather eye lid paste ons like Todd and sit at the piano and play my heart out live soon!

with sadness in my heart over the great loss too soon, of Inger Stevens…

MonsterGirl( JoGabriel)

Originally recorded at The Luna County Conservatory In NY by Mike Fazio , now remixed by friend and fellow artist Mark Sheppard adding fretless bass and horns and dreamy drifts.

Todd and his awesome eagle feathered brows!

The Monsters’s Gaze: A Tribute To Killer Love

The song Longer appears on my album Hunting Down The Ceremony Vol.1

MonsterGirl (jogabriel)

Bride of Frankenstein (1935)& The Mummy(1932) “We Belong Dead” A video tribute to Boris Karloff

James Whale’s brilliant follow up film and what I consider even better than it’s predecessor Frankenstein,(1931) starring the great Karloff and Elsa Lanchester as The Bride.

And a deliciously campy and fabulous performance by Ernest Thesiger as Doctor Pretorius.

In Karl Freund’s The Mummy Boris plays Imhotep who comes after his immortal beloved played by the fiery sensual Zita Johann.

I have said this so many times, and I never get tired of making the point, I wish Boris Karloff had been my grandfather. I did this music tribute to just 2 of his memorable performances, although there hasn’t been any time that I haven’t been moved by his gentility that comes through even the most notorious characters he’s inhabited.

Here is my song Fable Honey off the album Fools and Orphans. I dedicate this video to Boris and hope that he would be pleased with my treatment of his performances.

MonsterGirl (jogabriel)

Rosemary’s Baby 1968 “Aren’t You His Mother Rosemary?”

Roman Polanski’s masterpiece from Ira Levin’s novel of Satan in the city, Motherhood, Paranoia and Betrayal.

Starring Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer.

“Aren’t You His Mother Rosemary?” is from my album The Last Drive In

MonsterGirl (jogabriel)

Nightmare Alley 1947 Carnival Noir and lifes Little Birds

Edmund Goulding’s Carnival Noir masterpiece starring Tyrone Power as the opportunistic mentalist.Also starring Joan Blondell, Coleen Gray and Helen Walker.

Jo Gabriel’s “Little Birds” remixed by Mark Sheppard originally appears on the album Hunting Down The Ceremony Vol.1

MonsterGirl (jogabriel)

Jane Eyre (1943) Joan Fontaine & Orson Welles: Charlotte Brontës beloved captives

JANE EYRE 1943 Directed by Robert Stevenson and Adapted from the  Charlotte Brontë novel by John Houseman, Aldous Huxley and Stevenson.

Starring the lovely Joan Fontaine as the empathetic Jane, Orson Welles as the brooding Edward Rochester, the great unsung character actor Henry Daniell, and 2 very young and wonderful actresses the uncredited immortal Elizabeth Taylor as Helen Burns and the pixie Margaret O’Brien as Adele. Also appearances by Agnes Moorehead and Hillary Brooke. And Peggy Ann Garner as young Jane.

Jo Gabriel’s Poison In The Well appears on my album Fools and Orphans.

MonsterGirl (jogabriel)

Val Lewton’s “I Walked With A Zombie” (1943) Elements of Jane Eyre, Colonialism and The Synergy of Sound

Val Lewton’s Masterpiece on a low budget for RKO. Directed by Jacques Tourneur and story by Curt Siodmak

Jo Gabriel’s “Sway” appears on my album The Amber Sessions

I will be doing a major feature on the work of Val Lewton in the coming months, his masterworks in shadow are some of the most evocative films ever screened.

MonsterGirl (JoGabriel)