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 byJack 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.
This little mystery gem Directed by George B. Seitz and based on the play by Bayard Veiller, takes place in Colonial India where the great Dame May Whitty (My Name is Julia Ross 1945, Green Dolphin Street 1947 and Night Must Fall 1937) plays Mme. Rosalie La Grange
a medium who arranges a seance to try and prove her daughter Nell O’Neill’s (Madge Evans)
innocence in a murder investigation. La Grange proceeds to help Inspector Marney (played by Lewis Stone) solve the crime.
The cast also includes Elissa Landi, Henry Daniell, and Charles Trowbridge.
Trivia from IMDb: The play opened on Broadway in New York City, New York, USA on 20 November 1916 and had 328 performances. Margaret Wycherlyplayed the role of Rosalie La Grange, as she also did in the 1929 film version.
Release date -Nov. 17, 1961 Episode directed by Anton Leader, written by Rod Serling and starring Lois Nettleton as Norma and Betty Garde as Mrs. Bronson.
When the Earth falls out of orbit, two women try to cope with increasingly oppressive heat in a nearly abandoned city.
An underrated episode of Boris Karloff’sThriller in brief! even for me, that is…
The Storm -Release date Jan. 22nd, 1962
Directed by Herschel Daugherty adapted for television by writer William D. Gordon from a short story by crime novelist MacIntoch Malmar. Which was later adapted for television, again directed by Hershel Daugherty in an updated film called The Victim 1972Â starring the wonderful Elizabeth Montgomery and the always acerbic Eileen Heckart.
Starring Nancy Kelly as Janet Willsom (The Bad Seed 1956) The classic American horror-thriller film directed by Mervyn LeRoy won Kelly an Oscar for Best Actress that year as psychotic Rhoda Penmark’s (Patty McCormack) mother, Christine Penmark.
Walter Kerr of the New York Herald Tribune wrote of her "Tony Award-winning stage performance:
“Though Miss Kelly has done attractive work on Broadway before, she has never really prepared us for the brilliance of the present portrait” (Walter Kerr-New York Times, January 14, 1995).
The evil Rhoda strokes her mother. Scarier than clowns….!
The Storm also stars James Griffith as Ed Brandies the quirky lecherous and intrusive cab driver. David McLean as Ben T. Willsom and Jean Carroll as the voice of phone operator Drucie. Not to be forgotten, the beautifully sleek and ever-present Baba the black cat and real star of this episode…
Nancy Kelly plays Janet Willsom, a woman besieged by noises and bad weather, while isolated in her home, waiting for her husband Ben to arrive home in during a raging storm. Kept alerted and accompanied by her faithful black cat Baba, Janet must first fend off the nauseating advances of the cabbie who brings her home and wants to practically move in on her, while her husband is away on business.
When I originally posted this feature I had made a reference to Hitchcock in the post concerning the body of the dead girl in the trunk. The focus is on her lifeless finger, with the large diamond ring dangling as limp as a soggy carrot.
The Storm, in general, contains striking elements of a good old-fashioned Hitchcock thriller! As well as the framing of one hell of a good stage play!
I hadn’t been asked to join in the BEST HITCHCOCK MOVIE (THAT HITCHCOCK NEVER MADE)Â yet. So here it is once again, with a few little tidbits thrown in so that it can take its place in the wonderful blogathon that’s going on between July 7 -July 13!
Nancy Kelly- strong actress, beautiful, never got to play a Hitchcock heroine!
The use of a strong woman, alone in a situation where there is a person unknown stalking her. Plenty of red herrings thrown in to divert our attention, and one hell of a dead body stuffed in a trunk, that we the audience are privy to, but not the feature’s protagonist, Janet Willsom.
Janet Willsom, finds herself in the midst of one single night’s journey of survival, trying to stay one step ahead of a murderer and also delay an uncomfortable bit of evidence, that could turn her entire world upside down.
From its small taut moments of built-in suspense, until the eventual climax, ‘The Storm’ plays out truly like any good Hitchcock ‘Woman in Peril’ such as Dial M For Murder 1954 Starring Grace Kelly and Ray Milland.
Grace Kelly – The Strong Hitchcock blond-beautiful!
The episode opens with a mysterious pair of man’s trousers assailing a beautiful blonde in the midst of the rainstorm. She is strangled and stuffed in a trunk in the cellar, as we are strategically shown the emphasis on a shiny diamond ring on her lifeless finger sticking out of the trunk. A very Hitchockian moment…
Is Janet now being stalked by the same mad killer? What’s behind every noise and flash of light and sweep of shadow?
I love this episode because it creates a perfectly creepy environment of isolation. Very much lit as a faithful crime drama Film Noir, the shear simplicity of each moment, each little task Janet undergoes to create normalcy and safety in her surroundings, what would usually be merely ordinary banal gestures become tautly drawn-out maneuvers in a darkly ominous, tweaked and dangerous landscape.
Invoking more of a sense of terror because of its bared-down realism, than a manufactured horror. As suggested by David Schow‘s wonderful commentary of this episode on the recently released DVD box set, the atmosphere of the isolated ‘woman in peril‘ who must fend off whatever is lurking, reminds us of Audrey Hepburn in Wait Until Dark 1967
This is also a faithful psychological Film Noir piece, utilizing the very best in Nancy Kelly as the dame in danger and James Griffith as the lasciviously intrusive cab driver Ed whose quirky character is either a raving maniac or just a red herring to throw us off the scent of the true murderer.
Ida Lupino: Actress/Director – The Iron Maiden of Prison Noir
“State’s prison, all prisons look alike from outside, but inside each has a different character. In this one"¦ caged men"¦ separated only by a thick wall. From caged women"¦
The system is wrong but it goes on and on and on"¦”
Directed by Lewis Seller, and written Crane Wilbur, (He Walked By Night 1948, The Bat 1959, House of Wax 1953) with the screenplay and story by Jack DeWitt.
Ida Lupino plays Amelia van Zandt the sadistic borderline, psychotic Warden/Matron of a co-ed women’s prison. She is a total institutionalist, exerting strict regulations, with no gray area for sentimentalism. For van Zandt it’s about the cold hard road to rehabilitation… her way… the hard way.
Lupino has described herself as “the poor man’s Bette Davis.” Ida Lupino moved to Hollywood from England, after filming I Lived with You starring the beautiful Ivor Novello. (The Lodger 1927). She started to make some noise as the hard-edged dame in the 40s, starring in 2 powerful Noir films They Drive by Night (1940) and High Sierra (1941), both starring opposite one of my all-time favorites, Humphrey Bogart.
She starred in two other memorable films which are great contributions to classic Film Noir, Road House 1948 and On Dangerous Ground 1952. For more info about Ida Lupino, the actress, and how she got started as a prolific director of film and television you can read more about her here.
Lupino, while a uniquely beautiful woman, has a face that can convey heartlessness, a hollow shell of a woman, and a militant spinster. ‘The Iron Maiden’, is what I’ve dubbed Lupino for these two particular interchangeable roles.
Women’s Prison is swathed with an ensemble of various Noir Femmes as the rough and weathered inmates. Jan Sterling, Audrey Totter, and Hugo Haas regular Cleo Moore.
There’s also the wonderful Juanita Moore,Vivian Marshall, Mae Clarke, Gertrude Micheal as Chief Matron Sturgess, and one of my favorites, Phyllis Thaxter as the ‘nice girl’ thrust into a ‘bad situation’ who almost loses her mind from the claustrophobic and oppressive iron grip van Zandt keeps on her and the rabid choke hold she keeps on the jugulars of the other female inmates.
And don’t let Thaxter’s role fool you, I’ve seen her play ruthless psychotics in her own right on Boris Karloff’s Thriller episode air date Nov. 6th, 1961Â The Last of The Sommervilles as the conniving sociopath Ursula Sommerville. Interesting connection…Ida Lupino not only wrote the script for the episode but directed it as well!
Thaxter is the cunning Ursula with Martita Hunt as the eccentric Celia Summerville.
Although a gritty Noir ‘women in prison film…Â could easily sway into the campy territory, Lewis Seller’sWomen’s Prison stays very steady on a course of lensing the social implications of a corrupt and brutal institution that extols credit for keeping the female riff-raff out of the community while perpetuating the hard line, and struggle that many of these women face on the outside. Beating them down, and objectifying them as sexless social misfits who need to be kept away from ‘men’ and out of a ‘decent’ society.
Amelia van Zandt is the hyper-exemplification of what can happen when too much power is given agency and allowed to culminate into a destructive force. van Zandt is the linchpin of brute force, and the submission required in order to control a group or perpetuate an ideal. The fact that she is female illustrates that it does not only have to be a patriarchal institution that can break a women’s spirit. It is here that elements of class and social capital come into focus and play a role in predetermining their fate.
Lupino’s character is similar to Hume Cronyn’s sadistic and unempathetic Capt. Munsey in Jule’s Dassin’s Brilliant Brute Force 1947:
Is that a lead pipe Captain Munsey or are you just REALLY happy to see me?
In a way, van Zandt is just another ‘Boogeyman‘ created by an institution that dehumanizes its individuals.
Women’s Prison illustrates what happens when absolute control is given to a person or persons and that control goes unchecked, allowing their private or misguided motivations, mental health, ability to lead, and quite simply the lack of understanding about the human equation to dictate the terms of the human condition in/of an isolated/insulated environment.
Here is a music/film mash-up tribute to Bava and Steele, using edited clips from the classic film and a song off my neo-classical lo-fi album The Last Drive In!
Mario Bava’s masterpiece of Gothic horror starring the legendary Barbara Steele is the vengeful witch Katia Vajda / Princess Asa Vajda who rises from the tomb to possess the body of her descendant!
“STARE INTO THESE EYES… discover deep within them the unspeakable terrifying secret of BLACK SUNDAY… it will paralyze you with fright!”
Here I’ve taken the last scene of What Ever Happened To Baby Jane (1962) and added my little piece called ‘Once’ which appears on my double album retrospective Hunting Down The Ceremony Vol.1 The Hidden Voice
Here’s to Bette Davis and Joan Crawford and Robert Aldrich for getting these Grand Dames together, to kick the ever loving crap out of each other on and off screen!!!!!!
most memorable classics of horror featuring one of Castle’s Barnumesque  gimmicks dubbed Emergo! An inflatable glow in the dark skeleton attached to a wire which floated over the audience during the final moments of the film.
Unfortunately instead of causing shivers and screams, the audience would hurl candy boxes, soda cups or any other objects at the poor hard working skeleton. So much for the amazing miracle of Emergo! Still William Castle knew how to engage his audience, and as far as I’m concerned his work is as relevant and captivating today, setting the stage for remakes and copycats abound.
The film stars the ever urbane Vincent Price as Frederick Loren who is now on his 4th wife, Annabelle played by the sultry Carol Ohmart.
Loren has invited 5 unrelated guests to a rented house for a ‘Haunted House’ party. He dares them to stay the entire night, in which all of them desperate for money, will receive $10,000 clams. Each guest is offered charming party favors…guns displayed in little coffins, what fun!
The house has a violent history as owner Watson Pritchard (the very familiar face of character actor Elisha Cook Jr.) terrified and gradually sotted, relates the history of the house to everyone. At midnight the caretakers Mr and Mrs Slydes will lock the doors there by trapping the guests in this frightening and treacherous haunted house on a hill.
Will they survive a night of mayhem, ghosts, mystery and murder!!!!!
Also starring Richard Long as Lance Schroeder, Alan Marshalas Dr. David Trent, Carolyn Craig as Laura Manning, Julie Mitchum as Ruth Bridgers, Howard Hoffman as Jonas Slydes and Leona Anderson as the iconic image of the blind Mrs. Slydes.
“Consult your doctor! Bring your seat belts!”
“Acclaimed The Super-Shocker Of The Century!”
“First Film With the Amazing New Wonder EMERGO: The Thrills Fly Right Into The Audience!”
Yet another underrated Karloff Thriller episode in brief. Yes, I know, I”m long-winded, and if you had to wait for me to do the whole transcription for some of these wonderful shows and films, I’d never write anything. I am trying to be disciplined here. Less photo work, less rambling on, and more to the gist of the story!
But don’t get too comfy with my brevity, The long-winded MonsterGirl lurks around the corner to sweep you up with 2 part series and photo galleries that could fill an entire album. That’s just how I roll, and I truly hope most of you take me as I am…!
“Rose French. in the blur of memory…the face grows dim…but do you remember the name….20 years ago…Rose French, the remarkable Rose French. As a servant girl, or as a princess. She was a quicksilver star in celluloid heaven. If a woman could sell her soul to achieve such fame, what wouldn’t she do to get it back? Poor Rose, that was all she wanted, to relive the past. And those who loved her, Frank Clyde for instance could do nothing to stop her, but the comeback trail could lead to strange and sinister places. To a lonely garden. And to a night of terror!
It could even lead to the face of a painted doll…but the comeback trail is a journey without maps…as sure as my name is Boris Karloff…Poor Rose French and her last desperate summer…That’s the name of our story ROSE’S LAST SUMMER. Our principal players are Ms. Mary Astor, Mr. Lin McCarthy, and Miss Helen Quintal …
Let me assure you this is a THRILLER!”
Starring Mary Astor as Rose French/Mrs. Horace Goodfield/Helen Quintal. This teleplay would poetically mirror Astor’s personal journey as a Hollywood movie star whose life took a different direction, one mixed with alcohol and scandal.
Lin McCarthy as Frank Clyde, Jack Livesey as Haley Dalloway, Hardie Albright as Willet Goodfield, Dorothy Green as Ethel Goodfield
In the beginning scenes of Roses Last Summer we see a weary yet unrestrained drunk, an uninhibited woman who looks like she’s got a mad on at the world, stumbling outside a night crawlers bar. She’s having an argument with the bar owner who apparently has thrown her out of his establishment. After spouting a few barbs at the place, she takes off her shoe and throws it through the glass window with neon letters that spell BAR.
She then stumbles in front of a moving truck which strikes her down in the street. A crowd gathers around her unconscious body. Someone picks up a snapshot of her from her handbag and announces, that this is no ordinary lush, this is the once famous but now aged star of the silver screen Rose French. An intense and curious man in the throng of street faces begins looking suspiciously at poor Rose splayed out on the asphalt.
