Brian Schuck of Films From Beyond the Time Barrier has handed MonsterGirl ‘The Liebster Award!’

Brian Schuck of the outre cool Films From Beyond The Time Barrier has graced me with a ‘seal of approval’ for the much coveted Liebster Award. I have been secretly yearning for one of these, so when he tapped me I cheered with glee and became choked with emotion, I truly did…

I’ve been referred to as cheeky, I think I’m always kind, I try to be very thoughtful about the subjects and themes I’m covering, whether it’s a film noir with a sociological underpinning or a classic horror film that I just can’t help injecting a bit of my kitchen table philosophy into, I like to think critically about things, not be too preachy, I loathe that, and I am well aware of how long winded I can be, and because often enough I like to create a visual essay for the film or show I am talking about, with the gazillion images I pack into one single post, (enough to wallpaper your guest bedroom with), someone still felt I deserved the award. I’m getting Verklempt…

So now it’s my turn to pass along this honor by answering 11 random things about myself, answer the 10 wonderful questions that Brian has asked me to illuminate you with, and then to pay it forward to 11 other bloggers so that they might feel the glow from the glory of being recognized as the stunning new kid on the block in the blogasphere by some extremely witty and wonderful thinkers and writers. I love this award because it shows appreciation for the work we’ve all done and connects us all together making the world an even more deliciously collective consciousness pot luck. I adore reading the random facts about the people behind the always informative, serious or humorous, absolutely enjoyable and entertaining blogs that are not only original, inspire nostalgic exultation, and are endearing and thought provoking little personal tributes to the world of arts and entertainment. The Liebster Award is like a big kiss on the mouth from a very appreciative fan. Well, maybe not so much like a stalker, but it’s a really swell compliment indeed…

Here goes:

THESE ARE 11 LITTLE THINGS ABOUT MYSELF:

1) I have gypsy blood
2) my two favorite sounds in the world are purring and rain pouring down
3) I name everything"¦and I do mean everything.
4) When I play my concertina Ruby it frightens the cats.
5) Garlic is not my friend anymore.
6) I never went to school, I used to hide behind the shed until my Austrian Grandfather would find me and throw out curse words in German then chase me around the house telling my mother"¦ who would then let me stay home and sketch super heroes, read my comic books, make my Aurora Models of Universal Monsters and watch Dark Shadows with her.
7) My mother was a ballet dancer until her breasts grew too large, they told her to teach, she declined.
8) Kids really did tease me when I was growing up, they called me MonsterGirl, a name I wear with extreme pride today!
9) I think Vincent Price is absolutely one of the sexiest men who ever lived…
10) I talk to trees, animals, insects and inanimate objects as if they truly knew what I was saying"¦ I also talk to the vacuum cleaner Pearl and thank her after every job well done.
11) I was told by a several psychics that I had been burned as a witch in a past life.

1. What is your guiltiest movie pleasure?

Valley of the Dolls (1967), “Boobies Boobies Boobies nothin but Boobies, who needs ’em” need I say more…

2. What is your favorite character actor/actress?

If you get to know me you find out that asking me to pick ‘just one’ of anything is like trying to eat one potato chip. It just can’t be done, therefor with your indulgence you might have to bare with me while I mention just a few"¦ sorry

Ruth Gordon is the one I’d pick if you absolutely held a gun to my head and forced me to choose just one… then there’s Shelley Winters, Joan Blondell, Mildred Dunnock, Thelma Ritter, Judith Evelyn, Jeanette Nolan, Agnes Moorehead, Burgess Meredith, Cecil Kellaway, Harry Townes, George Macready, Roddy McDowall, Maurice Evans and Barnard Hughes.

3. What movie would you show to an alien visitor to best illustrate the meaning of life on earth and being human?

The Wizard of Oz (1939), because the truth about life is that home is right there ‘within’ yourself, but so many people have to hit their heads during a tornado and meet a man behind the curtain and a kindly witch to figure that out.

4. What movie made prior to 1970 would you show to a teen or twenty-something who insists that nothing that old could be any good?

I baby sat 8 and I0 year old sisters a few years back and we watched Them (1954),Â Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Creature from The Black Lagoon (1954). It wasn’t hard to get them to think critically about the ‘other’ and I never underestimated the power of our imaginations. They had a profound understanding of invading the Creature’s domain when he wasn’t bothering anybody and imposing a colonial point of view on this poor Gil man. They understood that it was icky to have an arranged or deranged marriage between two unwitting people sewn together and brought to life by lightning and a galvanic battery, and by the middle of Them we were all sadly exclaiming ‘They’ve killed Gramps Johnson‘ they loved it"¦ and a new generation of classic horror fans were born.

Otherwise I’d force everyone else to watch Robert Wise’s The Haunting (1963), Rosemary’s Baby (1968)or anything of Val Lewtons.

5. What movie or actor/actress that you were indifferent about or maybe even disliked at the start, has grown most in your estimation over the years?

Here I go again not naming just one, and I never disliked any of these actresses- Carol Lynley, Salome Jens, Eileen Heckert, Lois Nettleton, Teresa Wright, Kim Hunter and Myrna Loy.

6. What movie or actor/actress has declined the most over the years?

Citizen Kane (1941) I think it’s highly over rated, I’ve tried to re-experience it several times with an open mind but it just doesn’t resonate with me"¦ uh oh…here come the angry villagers with their hay forks, bale hooks and torches blazing… look out!

7. What actor or actress is most like you?

Let’s see, I am feral but classy, intuitive, passionate, kind , worship cats, believe in magic am sexy but not drop dead gorgeous, considered humorous, quirky, whimsical and delight small children and old people and my hair at times has been a bit frightful yet I never ‘scared the horses’,"¦As Queenie In Bell Book and Candle I was child-like and loved talking to cats. I must be"¦ Elsa Lanchester

8. Which would you prefer to do: direct, produce or write?

Well writing for sure, but I’d love to EditÂ or be involved in the Casting process.

9. What 3 neglected, underdog movies are most deserving of a revival on TV, DVD and/or online?

Oh Liebster gods forgive me for breaking the rules but, I can’t just pick 3, off the top of my little knotty head (I bang it a lot) Sam Fuller’s The Naked Kiss (1964), Mark Robson’s Bedlam (1946) Thorold Dickinson’s The Queen of Spades (1949), Joseph L. Mankiewicz Suddenly, Last Summer (1959), Edward Dmytryk’s Walk on the Wild Side (1962), Aldrich’s Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte (1964), Max OphÃ¼ls Caught (1949), No Way Out (1950),Henry Hathaway’s The Dark Corner (1946), Phantom Lady (1944), Nightmare Alley (1947), The Man Who Laughs (1928), The Bad Seed (1956) The Killers (1946), Dead Ringer (1964), The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)

10. Boris Karloff or Bela Lugosi?

I’ve been saying it for years that I wish Boris Karloff was my grandfather. His lilting tone of voice, his gentle manner, and the dimension he brings to every role has made me love him like a kindly grandfather I wish could read me scary bed time stories with a warm glass of milk. In addition to his reputation as a true gentleman and an advocate for actors, his contributions are memorable and timeless treasures…

11. What unfamiliar movie genre terrain are you most keen to explore?

The Spaghetti Western…

Now it’s time to pass this torch along to the next group of worthy bloggers:

If you don’t see your blog here, please don’t hate me, it’s either because you’ve been tagged already, have a Liebster or it’s just that I purely have too much on my mind and couldn’t think of all of you as much as I do adore you…

CURTAIN CALL: Here are the 11 I pass the Liebster torch along to-

Cinema Enthusiast
Goregirl’s Dungeon
Furious Cinema
OCD Viewer
MonsterMinions
And So It Begins
Mettel Ray Movie Blog
Forgotten Films
Film Squish
The Motion Pictures
Silver Screenings

And if they should want to answer my 11 questions, it would be these little nuggets to chew on:

1-The Addams Family or The Munsters?
2-If you had to pick the most compelling cinematic ghost story which would you choose?
3-Who is your absolute favorite actor/actress and what would you like to ask them if you had the chance?
4-Which do you feel is the best film adaptation of a literary work?
5-What director do you feel really pushed or pushes the boundaries of film making and why?
6-Can we take Citizen Kane off the number one film of all time list for just a moment and suppose there is another, what would that be?
7-You’re trapped in an elevator for 26 hours, who would you want to be sweaty and thirsty with?
8-If you were an archetypal character from either, literature, film or television who would it be?
9-Who in your opinion is THE worst film, television or cartoon villain of all time?
10-Who is the most sympathetic character in a film?
11-What novel would you like to see adapted to the screen?

Auf Wiedersehen-der MonsterGirl

Quote of the day! The File on Thelma Jordon (1950)”I’m no good for any man for any longer than a kiss!”

..SHE’LL LIE…KILL OR KISS HER WAY OUT OF ANYTHING!

THE FILE ON THELMA JORDON (1950)

CapturFiles_5 — Barbara Stanwyck and Wendell Corey in Robert Siodmak’s The File on Thelma Jordon
*photo courtesy of Doctor Macro

Directed by Robert Siodmak (The Spiral Staircase 1945, The Killers 1946, Criss Cross 1949) this is a slick film-noir crime thriller with the ballsy Stanwyck as femme fatale Thelma Jordon in love with jewel thief Tony Laredo (Richard Rober) who gets her to steal from her rich aunt, and winds up shooting her, then making it look like a robbery. Wendell Corey plays gullible Cleve Marshall the assistant district attorney who manages to get Thelma an acquittal at trial. They start a passionate affair but Thelma is no good, and Tony reappears back in the picture… these things never end well…

“I’m no good for any man for any longer than a kiss!”

CapturFiles_4 — photo courtesy of Doctor Macro

“Maybe I am just a dame and didn’t know it!”

Maybe I’m just a dame and thought I was a MonsterGirl…

Jo Gabriel is MonsterGirl: Little Birds

I’m feeling a little nostalgic for the musiciany side of me this morning. I’ve got a lot of film posts coming up, but I don’t want to forget that my heart and roots are firmly grounded in being a singer/songwriter. For those of you who follow my little cinematic tirades, I though you might like to see a live performance of mine, and see the girl behind the MonsterGirl mask…

Here I am performing my song ‘Little Birds’ live at Hofstra University….

Your ever lovin’ MonsterGirl and Siren Joey

PS: I miss my dreadlocks

Life Lessons From Barney Fife: ‘I Got This Clock in My Stomach’

“Well I happen to have this low sugar blood content, and if I don’t get my lunch by noon I get a headache and I’m no good to anybody.”

It’s a very common thing… clock in the stomach-MonsterGirl

Happy Belated Birthday to my all time favorite Bette Davis April 5th:

in the words of Olivia de Havilland, she was “A Basically Benevolent Volcano”

Here’s to you Bette Davis, there will never be another quite like you…love Joey

A Trailer a Day Keeps the Boogeyman Away! Terror Creatures From The Grave (1965)

“They rise from dank coffins in the dead of night, murdering their victims in an orgy of slaughter!”

TERROR CREATURES FROM THE GRAVE (1965)

Walter BrandiÂ (The Playgirls and The Vampire 1960,Bloody Pit of Horror 1965) plays Albert Kovac an attorney who arrives at a strange desolate castle to settle the estate of the recently deceased Dr. Hauff. Starring the magnificent icon Barbara Steele who plays Cleo Hauff, the young widow who is having an affair.Â Riccardo Garrone plays Joseph Morgan and Mirella Maravidi plays Hauff’s daughter Corinne. Alfredo Rizzo Â plays Dr Nemek, and Luciano Pigozzi is the trusted servant Kurt. The history of the castle has been haunted by a curse, furthermore Dr Hauff used to dabble in the black arts and claimed to be able to summon the spirits of the dead victims of the plague to wreak vengeance on those he felt betrayed him.“The water will save you.”

CapturFiles_1 — **‘Go back to the dead!!!’**

In this atmospheric Gothic Italian horror film from the 60s, there are several creepy and classical effective moments of morbidity and gruesome death scenes. And disembodied hands are always sort of yucky.

Beautiful Barbara — **just magnificent in her Barbara Steele-ness**

Truthfully, I could watch anything that Barbara Steele was in, she has such a splendid kind of sensuality that just oozes off the screen, and those darkly fervent eyes that mesmerize. (wow didn’t really mean to rhyme there)and while this isn’t really a stand out vehicle for her in any way as compared to her other work, the film is not a bad little romp through some vintage Euro chills for it’s 87 minutes, even without the Italian version’s brief gratuitous breast shot. Directed by Massimo Pupillo (Bloody Pit of Horror 1965 with Mickey Hargitay, La Vendetta di Lady Morgan 1965 with Erica Blanc and Barbara Nelli as Lady Susan Morgan and Django Kills Softly 1967) Cinematography by Carlo Di Palmi who worked on Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966’s masterpiece Blow Up.

See ya round the snack bar, no butter on mine thanks-MonsterGirl

The Film Score Freak Recognizes: â˜† ‘The Man of a Thousand Faces’ It’s Lon Chaney’s Birthday April 1st

The Film Score Freak wants to pay tribute to The Man of a Thousand Faces, the inimitable Lon Chaney Sr. who’s evocative style of physical performance, volatile and poignant, effusive, penetrating and always sublime characterizations created some of the most memorable roles in cinematic history.

Happy Birthday Lon Chaney, we here at The Last Drive In wish you never get slapped, never to be unknown, never to be in the shadows or swing from a bell unless you’re ringing it for joy, to keep your wonderful face unmasked and the music playing til the ends of time, no matter how many thumbs or arms or legs you have, or whatever unholy mischief you might be up to, we adore you forever from here to Zanzibar….

My song ‘Passing/Arriving’ appears on my lo-fi album The Amber Session, you can visit my official site at EphemeraÂ

He_Who_Gets_Slapped — **as Paul Beamont or HE in He Who Gets Slapped 1924**

Laugh, Clown, Laugh with Loretta Young — **as Tito in Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1928) with Loretta Young**

Lon Chaney andnJoan Crawford The Unknown — **Alonzo in The Unknown 1927 with Joan Crawford**

**Lon Chaney as The Phantom of the Opera 1925**

Lon_Chaney_as_Chinese_immigrant_Yen_Sin_in_the_film_Shadows_(1922) — **Lon Chaney as Chinese Immigrant Yen Sin in Shadows (1922)**

London after Midnight — **as Professor Edward C. Burke in London After Midnight 1927**

**as Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1923**

The Miracle Man in and out of costume — **Chaney in and out of his costume as The Frog for The Miracle Man 1919**

The Penalty with Ethel_Grey_Terry_and_Lon_Chaney — **as Blizzard in The Penalty 1920 with Ethel Terry**

The Unholy 3 (1930) — **Echo – The Ventriloquist in The Unholy Three 1930**

**Alfonso in The Unknown with Joan Crawford**

Happy Birthday Lon Chaney-With love to a man of many monsters from a MonsterGirl

Bunny Lake is Missing (1965) & Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964): Otto Preminger/Bryan Forbes -‘A Conspiracy of Madness’: Part 1

Doll-maker: “This doll had almost been loved to death. You know, love inflicts the most terrible injuries on my small patients.”

BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING (1965)

Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965) (British) is director/producer Otto Preminger’s psychological thriller, considered to be part of the noir cannon or Post-Noir yet embraces the suspense thriller sub-genre. A thriller about a little girl who may or may not exist! The film deals with the dread of losing yourself, not being believed, and childhood nightmares that are rooted in the sense of lack of safety in the environment where they should be protected.

Starring Carol Lynley (The Cardinal 1963, Shock Treatment 1964, The Shuttered Room 1967) as Ann Lake and Keir Dullea (2001: A Space Odyssey 1968, Black Christmas 1974) as brother Stephen Lake, the Americans who relocate to London and exude a mysteriously emotionless manner even when they act frenzied, enraged or frantically distressed.

The film also stars Laurence Olivier as Superintendent Newhouse, Martita Hunt as retired head schoolmistress Ada Ford, Anna Massey as the uptight Elvira Smollett, Clive Revill as Sergeant Andrews, playwright Noel Coward as Horatio Wilson, the lewd, drunken, seedy and lecherous Landlord who is creepy and inappropriate as he carries his little dog Samantha around with him everywhere. He’s also got a wicked whip collection… one which was once owned by the ‘master himself’ the Marquis de Sade.

Otto Preminger and Laurence Olivier on the set of Bunny Lake — *Otto Preminger* and *Laurence Olivier* on the set of Bunny Lake.

Preminger and Noel Coward on the set of Bunny Lake — *Otto Preminger* and *Noel Coward* who plays the lascivious Horatio Wilson on the set of Bunny Lake Is Missing.

Finlay Currie plays the kindly old Doll Maker, Adrienne Corri is the disagreeable Dorothy, and Lucie Mannheim plays the irascible German cook.

Preminger filmed Bunny Lake Is Missing in stunning black & white using a widescreen format on location in London, hiring Director of Photography and cameraman Denys Coop (The Third Man 1949, Saint Joan 1957, Lolita 1962 and Billy Lair 1963) and Production Designer Don Ashton.

The story is based on the mystery novel by Marryam Modell using the pseudonym Evelyn Piper (who also wrote the novel,Â The Nanny 1965Â brilliantly adapted to the screen starring Bette Davis as a very sympathetic yet disturbed nanny) With a screenplay by John and Penelope Mortimer, Preminger adapted Piper’s original novel and reoriented the story taking it out of New York and placing it in heart of London.

The incredibly striking, simplistic, and evocative score was composed by Paul Glass (Lady in a Cage 1964) and used not only in the opening titles designed effectively by the great Saul Bass but the theme is used frequently as a childlike refrain, poignant and moving. The British group The Zombies also appear in a television broadcast, featuring three of their songs, “Remember You”, “Just Out of Reach” and “Nothing’s Changed.”

*CapturFiles_1a — **No one designs a title sequence like *Saul Bass…* each one evocative, primal… yet simplistic at its very core.**

Hope Bryce (Anatomy of a Murder 1959, Exodus 1960, Advise and Consent 1962) was responsible for the Costume design.

A standout performance is Martita Hunt, the wonderful British character actress who was in Boris Karloff’s Thriller episode as the batty aunt Celia Sommerville in The Last of The Summervilles. Here, she plays the school’s eccentric retired old headmistress Ada Ford who listens incessantly to recordings of little children who tell their nightmares and dreams recorded on her reel-to-reel tape machine.

CapturFiles_2 — The fabulous *Martita Hunt* as the batty Celia Sommerville co-stars *Phyllis Thaxter* as the cunning cousin Ursula Sommerville in one of the great episodes of *Boris Karloff’s* anthology television series THRILLER.

Columbia Pictures actually wanted Otto Preminger to cast Jane Fonda as Ann Lake, and Fonda was very anxious to play the role, but Preminger insisted on using Carol Lynley.

Carol Lynley as ann lake — *Carol Lynley* as Ann Lake.

Much like the hype of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, audiences were not allowed to tell the film’s ending. The film’s poster promoted the tagline “No One Admitted While the Clock is Ticking” I will also choose not to reveal the film’s coda in this post, so as not to give away the culmination of the film’s secrets or its finale.

This was one of Preminger’s last films with a Noir milieu, since The Man With The Golden Arm 1955 starring Frank Sinatra.

Preminger and Frank Sinatra on the set of Man With The Golden Arm — *Preminger* and *Frank Sinatra* on the set of Man With The Golden Arm (1955).

Within the film’s openness, and its various environments, it appears that several of the frames are cluttered with visual odds and ends and bits and pieces, the sequence with the unbroken view of dolls, Wilson’s African masks, and whips all evidence of the film’s sense of Fetishism.

Bunny Lake is Missing has a visual openness and fluidity which gives the film a striking dimension. The sweeping camerawork is familiar from the noir days of Preminger’s epic Laura (1944), although here it breaks away more completely from the enclosed environs of the 40s noir film.

Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney in Premingers iconic noir Laura — *Dana Andrews* and *Gene Tierney* in Preminger’s iconic *noir* classic Laura (1944).

Denys Coop’s diligent camera seems to peek into corners, moving through doors and up and down those iconographic STAIRS becoming part of the film’s fretful and apprehensive rhythm. Coop uses peculiar camera angles and lights his subjects from below in order to distort the mood, and throw odd uncomfortable shadows on their faces.

CapturFiles_47 — **An odd angle as the camera catches Ann Lake coming up the iconographic noir stairs. The visual Images are often a little skewed in Bunny Lake.**

CapturFiles_105 — **While Ann talks with the quirky Ada Ford, her face is lit from underneath giving her an ethereal, fairytale-like glimmer.**

BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING: THE SYNOPSIS

A single American mother Ann Lake (Carol Lynley relocates to London England to live with her journalist brother Stephen (Keir Dullea), Ann drops off her four-year-old daughter Felicia nicknamed ‘Bunny’ on the first day at her new nursery school “The Little People’s Garden.” When Ann returns to see how Bunny is getting on in school, she can not find a teacher or administrator present, except for a cranky German cook who is complaining about serving Junket (which is essentially gruel) played by Lucie Mannheim. Ann is forced to leave Bunny unsupervised in the building’s ‘first-day’ room under the promise by the cranky cook that she will look after the child. Ann must rush to meet the movers who are awaiting her at the new apartment. When Ann returns in the afternoon to pick up her little girl, the cook has quit, and she becomes distressed when Bunny is nowhere to be found and the school’s employees Elvira Smollett (Anna Massey) and Dorothy (Adrienne Corri) who are left in charge fervently obstruct Ann’s attempts at locating Bunny even denying that the little girl was ever at the school in the first place. No one remembers having seen her. This creates a mood of distrust and paranoia.

Ann desperately calls her brother Stephen for help. Ann and Stephen were raised without a father, and Ann never married the man who got her pregnant. She and Bunny have depended on Stephen to take care of them. Brother Stephen becomes enraged by the carelessness of the school’s staff, but Scotland Yard begins to investigate the matter. In walks, police superintendent Newhouse acted thoughtfully by Laurence Olivier assisted by Sergeant Andrews played by Clive Revill. Newhouse begins searching through the Lake’s belongings and the details of their lives trying to uncover what seems to be a mystery as to whether the child ever existed at all. He discovers that Ann once had an imaginary childhood daughter named Bunny, but even odder is that there seems to be no presence of Bunny’s belongings at the Lake’s residence.

CapturFiles_60 — **Little Bunny’s hair brush and comb are set out on the bathroom shelf…**

CapturFiles_151 — **Where are Bunny’s things? A taste of female hysteria and maternal paranoia.**

CapturFiles_119 — **Retired headmistress Ada Ford has a fantastical grasp of the inner workings of a child’s nightmares. Inhabited perfectly by the wonderful character actress Martita Hunt.**

There are several red herrings that are inserted into the plot to divert us away from the truth. One such red herring involves retired headmistress, the eccentric Ada Ford played by the marvelous Martita Hunt who seems to have an odd sensibility about children and an acute understanding of childhood motivations which is quickly picked up on by the plasticine yet cold-blooded Stephen Lake. Yet another odd character in the mix is the lecherous landlord Horatio Wilson an aging writer and radio actor played by Noel Coward who revels in his African Fertility Masks and lets himself into the Lakes apartment at will, in a perpetual state of inebriation lurking about making lewd gestures and propositions to Ann. He also has a collection of whips, exhibiting signs of his sadomasochistic proclivities.

All these strange characters give Inspector Newhouse a lot to digest, as he tries to eliminate all the possible suspects while trying to find a trace of Bunny that proves she actually does exist, not discounting the idea that Ann Lake is a delusional hysterical woman.

Ann and Stephen tell Inspector Newhouse that Bunny’s passport and all her belongings have also gone missing, assumed stolen during the mysterious burglary in the apartment. Another odd detail that doesn’t support Ann’s truly having raised this missing child, is that the school’s authorities claim that they never received a tuition check for a Bunny Lake.

CapturFiles_52 — **Ann shows Stephen the voucher for the Doll Hospital where Bunny’s doll is being repaired. Proof that she exists? Traces of an incestuous bond from the bathtub…**

Ann finally remembers that she has a ticket for the Doll Hospital where she took Bunny’s doll. She remembers this during a scene where Stephen is taking a bath, and brother and sister are both just smoking and talking like a married couple. The film constantly hints at traces of a very incestuous relationship, creepily manifested in several scenes, Stephen’s physical contact with Ann when he tries to comfort her, and one other such overt scene while Stephen is taking his bath…

Bunny Lake Lobby Card 54 — **Ann runs out into the dark and ominous London nightlife to try and get the doll from the repair hospital so she can show the police that Bunny owned a doll, reasoning that this will prove she exists.**

Continue reading “Bunny Lake is Missing (1965) & Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964): Otto Preminger/Bryan Forbes -‘A Conspiracy of Madness’: Part 1” →

The Film Score Freak Recognizes: Petula Clark: “You and I” Goodbye Mr. Chips (1969)

“Growing older, growing closer… making memories that light the sky”

GOODBYE MR.CHIPS (1969)

A shy, withdrawn English schoolteacher falls for a flashy showgirl.

‘You and I’ written by the great Leslie Bricusse and conducted by John Williams, from the soundtrack for Goodbye Mr. Chips, starring Peter O’Toole, as Arthur Chipping and Petula Clark as Katherine Bridges also co-starring Michael Redgrave, and directed by Herbert Ross.

A Trailer a Day Keeps the Boogeyman Away! Strait-Jacket (1964)

“HER HUSBAND…HER ROOM… AND ANOTHER WOMAN”

STRAIT-JACKET 1964

One of William Castle’s tautly 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’s Hush 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?

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.

Ann Helm and Elvis in Follow That Dream — *Ann Helm* and *Elvis* in Follow That Dream 1962.

Keep your heads… MonsteGirl