Postcards From Shadowland No.2
Category: Ubiquity
Boris Karloff’s Thriller: What Beckoning Ghost?
I like Judith Evelyn. There’s something well…Â solid and handsome about her. She also has a way of making you feel sympathy but not from a place of desperation,but an elegant, restrained kind of grace.
Consider a career in being scared to death (Angel Street tv 1946) She plays Mrs Manningham in a version of Gaslight, based on Patrick Hamilton’s stage play.
She’s always vulnerable you see. She has that kind of fragile appearance. It was nasty business the way Philip Coolidge playing Ollie frightens poor mute Martha (Evelyn) to death in William Castle’s The Tingler 1959.
And playing a Lonely Heart – Miss Lonely Heart as Stewart refers to her, as she is waiting for a love that may never come, in Hitchcock’s masterpiece Rear Window 1954.
I loved her as Mabel McKay in Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode Martha Mason, Movie Star aired May 19th, 1957. She was deliciously delightfully delusional, a murderess… yes, but sadly sort of lovable.
Evelyn has done a grand job of picking up the slack where starlets have left gaping holes for the less glamorous woman-in-peril to fill nicely. And here in What Beckoning Ghost? she is in top form, enunciating her words, drawing them out in sophisticated drones, no… not whiny. I didn’t say whining. Judith’s imploring is a secret little gesture that makes you want to protect her.
WHAT BECKONING GHOST?
What Beckoning Ghost? originally aired on September 18th, 1961, and started off Thriller’s second and only other season unfortunately.
It features aside from Judith Evelyn, Tom Helmore, and Adele Mara. The story was adapted by Donald Sanford, based on a short magazine story by Harold Lawlor (The Grim Reaper, The Terror in Teakwood), and adding to its threatening appeal, it was directed by Ida Lupino Ida’s Everywhere!
Here Evelyn plays concert pianist Mildred Beaumont (perhaps my particular affection for this character lies in the fact that I’m a pianist, and wouldn’t appreciate anyone fucking around using music in order to drive me crazy!)
Mildred suffered a serious heart attack, and now must convalesce at home, doing mostly bed rest, while her doting sister Lydia and patronizing husband Eric hover over her, like vultures shoving coffee and pills at her, scolding her for being restless, treating her like a muzzy child, all the while waiting to pick her bones dry, as they slowly drive her to her real death. Well, that’s what it looks like right… I won’t give away the story til you’ve seen it for yourself.
Mildred begins to see visions of her own funeral, downstairs in the drawing room. There begins a macabre harpsichord waltz by Jerry Goldsmith that becomes the leitmotif for the story. An almost maniacal, or should I say diabolical theme, music to be driven mad by one would say…
She sees herself laid out in a coffin with a large wreath of flowers bearing the platitude, Rest in Peace. Is she in such a weakened physical state, and so devoted to her scavenging, philandering husband Eric, that Mildred is too vulnerable to realize that there is a fowl plot underway? It’s almost Shakespearean with its glint of malevolence, madness, and sardonic revenge!
The episode opens with Mephistophelean violins serenading Mildred as she hugs a fur coat herself. She is transfixed in a three-way mirror. Mirrors are often used as symbolism, representational for the issue of ‘identity’ one in crisis, one that’s dubious of sanity, etc.
Enjoying her luxury Mildred is smiling. Waltzing around the room she begins to slip the fur off her shoulders As she sets it on the back of a chair, Eric enters the room with a glass of milk. She turns to greet him as he says, “Hey, why aren’t you getting ready for bed?” “Oh Eric, I feel so unbearably happy!” Eric has a smile like that of a viper about to strike, all fang and no heart.
Mildred sparkles a little, “Happy and whole"¦” She lets out a little exhausted sigh, her breath strained with a childlike glee, but not the energy to bring it forth.
” I can’t even remember what we saw at the theater tonight, I just sat there and felt the crowd all around me!” She’s ebullient, with a sense of having shed tremendous weight. After months of being ill and finally out on the town with her handsome husband on her satin and crepe-draped arm.
Gasping a little for air ” I kept thinking how wonderful it was to be with people again, to be out and ALIVE!!!” Her enthusiasm as she thrusts the word ‘alive’ out of her body seems so out of sync with Eric’s stoic blasé manner.
She asks him to dance with her, wrapping her arms around his shoulders to try and prod him. He becomes a little stern. “Oh no it’s way past your bedtime.” She begs him, “Oh please.”
“Absolutely not! you’ve had quite enough excitement on your first night out. You’ve got to give that heart of yours a chance to keep up with your feet you know.” Finally, a little whimsy comes to his staunch fatherly expression. Does he really love her? Does he really care about her health? It would appear so"¦but this is a Thriller. We know something unsavory is afoot.
“Oh, but you promised champagne in front of the fire before we went to bed"¦”
“You never forget anything do you?” An interesting clue is that Eric should remark about her impeccable memory.
She smiles in agreement and tells him, “I asked Lydia to put a bottle on ice before we went out.” She grins like a naughty child. Eric looks at her with his plasticine smile, “You could charm the birds, right out of the trees.”
Grabbing her chin and pinching it affectionately he tells her that he’ll get it. She says, “No, just like old times"¦I’ll go down and get the champagne and you light the fire.”
“Alright but take it easy on those stairs” ” I already got up them once tonight by myself"¦thank you.” She blows him a kiss.
Continue reading “Boris Karloff’s Thriller: What Beckoning Ghost?”
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!”
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!
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.
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.”
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.
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 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.
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!
There are thousands of wonderful obscurities in my collection, this is just one of them!
See it for yourself-MonsterGirl
From The Vault: The Man Who Watched Trains Go By or The Paris Express (1952)
THE MANÂ WHO WATCHED TRAINS GO BY 1952 or The Paris Express
If you’ve been following my blog for a while you might have picked up on the fact that I adore Claude Rains, and any film his wonderful presence has graced. Masterpiece or B-grade picture, he brings an inimitable style to any movie! Here: Claude Rains plays a mild-mannered clerk named Kees Popinga who discovers that his boss Julius de Koster, Jr. (Herbert Lom) has wiped out the company funds, while under the influence of a beautiful Parisian girl, Michele Rozier played by Marta Toren.
Popinga takes the money and goes on the lam after killing de Koster, while the police are in hot pursuit.
Also starring the lovely Anouk Aimee as Jeanne the prostitute.
This obscure thriller is directed and co-scripted by Harold French based on the novel by George Simenon.
There are thousands of films 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 STRANGE DOOR 1951, and PLAYGIRL 1956 starring Shelley Winters.
The film is filled with the right amount of 50s kitsch and camp and delicious vulgarity under the sensationalized surface. An obscure Crawford goodie that enthusiasts of the actress and genre should add to their ‘must see’ list!  Lynn: "You must go with the house "” like plumbing." 
There are thousands of films in my collection. this is just one of them!-See it for yourself!-MonsterGirl |
A Trailer a day keeps the Boogeyman away! The World The Flesh and The Devil (1959)
THE WORLD, THE FLESH AND THE DEVIL 1959
This is a film by writer, and director Ranald MacDougall who wrote screenplays for such films as The Unsuspected 1947, Possessed 1947, Mildred Pierce 1945, and The Naked Jungle 1954.
With writing credits to M.P. Shiel from their novel “The Purple Cloud”, Ferdinand Reyher’s “End of The World” and co-written by MacDougall. Harry Belafonte is an uncredited producer of the film.
With an incredibly evocative score by Miklós Rózsa (Spellbound 1944, Double Indemnity 1945) and a Noirish framework by cinematography Harold Marzorati, it’s an edgy adventure for Noir and Sci-fi fans alike.
This could be considered a Socio-Noir experience, as it deals at times frankly with the issue of race and gender, while not as critically as it might be dealt with today, for its time, it approaches the subject matter with a narrative that starts the conversation.
Filmed with gritty realism, set in an urban milieu with characters who are flawed and in conflict with each other and their surroundings.
Harry Belafonte plays Ralph Burton a miner trapped under the city for several days as a result of a cave-in. After days of isolation and deprivation, he manages to dig himself out of his underground grave.
Soon after he discovers that the entire population of Earth has been destroyed by nuclear holocaust.
He ventures to New York City and stumbles upon a once thriving metropolis that is now a desolate urbane wasteland, not unlike the landscape that Charlton Heston’s Neville faced in post-apocalyptic L.A.
Much like Neville, Ralph sets up a home for himself but is suddenly thrown into flux by the discovery of Inger Stevens as Sarah Crandall, the last surviving female on Earth.
The World, The Flesh and The Devil is an allegorical journey about desolation, survival, human nature, sacrifice, and the evolution of men and women trying to define themselves.
Thrown into the mix of this newly formed friendship between the only living black man and white woman, intrudes a third character Mel Ferrer who plays Benson Thacker a white entitled privileged male who has somehow navigated a small boat into the NYC harbor.
The triangle is formed and the tensions play out in a script that might have been penned by Rod Serling, who often took on the issue of race, class, and at times, but less so, gender with his thoughtful philosophical Sci-fi television show The Twilight Zone.
The two men struggle over who will be the dominant male suitor… who will take ownership of Sarah as if she weren’t already the last female on earth, her sexuality becomes amplified, her body thus systematically objectified to the nth degree, and does she even have a say in choosing neither of the men at all…white or black!
Try and catch this lesser-known post-apocalyptic tale filmed way back in the late 50s!
“This is New York, as no man has ever seen it. Empty, deserted, it’s teaming millions gone…! This is the setting for the most unusual picture ever filmed. The most daring idea or attempted in motion picture entertainment. The last three people alone in the world. What are the emotions of this girl? Facing a future that no woman before her has ever known. What of the man torn by basic human emotion as they stand on the brink of the unknown? Here is the film that crashes through time and the future. It may stun you, and shock you, but above all, it will grip your imagination as no film has ever done!”
“What would you do if you were one of the last three people on earth!”
Benson Thacker: I have nothing against negroes, Ralph.
Ralph Burton: That’s white of you.
Stay real! – MonsterGirl
As sure as my name is MonsterGirl, this is a Boris Karloff Thriller! “The Storm”
An underrated episode of Boris Karloff’s Thriller 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 Bad Seed 1956 also stars Eileen Heckart and the quintessentially cranky Henry Jones)
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!
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.
 Suspicion 1941
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.
Continue reading “As sure as my name is MonsterGirl, this is a Boris Karloff Thriller! “The Storm””
A Trailer a day keeps the Boogeyman away! Pretty Poison (1968)
PRETTY POISON 1968
(Anthony Perkins) plays Dennis Pitt, a mentally disturbed young man recently released from an institution, who tells a pretty All-American girl Sue Ann Stepanek (Tuesday Weld) that he’s a secret agent working for the CIA.
She’s thrilled to feed into Dennis’ fantasy world and that’s when all hell breaks loose and subterfuge Folie à deux and murder ensue, in this dark thriller from the 1960s. Co-starring Beverly Garland as Mrs. Stepanek and John Randolph as Morton Azenauer
Directed by Noel Black and written by Stephen Geller based on his novel, and screenplay by Lorenzo Semple Jr.
“…Wait till you see what they did to his aunt – the night watchman – to her mother.”
Happy Trailers-MonsterGirl!
MonsterGirl’s Fiend of The Day! I Was A Teenage Werewolf (1957)
I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF (1957)
Released by A.I.P and directed by Gene Fowler Jr (I Married A Monster From Outer Space 1958), this fabulous bit of schlock brings you the ever tearful, keenly thoughtful, always Pa Ingalls in a very different light.
Michael Landon plays a rage filled, maladjusted teenager Tony Rivers, who is regressed back into an animalistic throwback, a drooling werewolf by Dr Alfred Brandon (Whit Bissell) who uses hypnotherapy for his evil experiment with this angry youth. ‘A scientist maddened by the mystery of the werewolf.’
The already volatile Tony starts attacking practicing gymnasts and classmates alike.
“a savage lust to kill”
When he’s not furry and foaming at the mouth he’s abusive to his girlfriend (Yvonne Lime),throws tantrums, is bitter, throws milk and beats up his friends.
Fangs for stopping by! MonsterGirl