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Monday, October 12, 2020
Hammer Watch: Dracula - Prince of Darkness (1966)
Watched: 10/09/2020
Format: DVD
Viewing: Second
Decade: 1960's
Director: Terence Fisher
This Halloween, we're making our way through the Dracula films from Hammer Studios. This is the second appearance of Christopher Lee as Drac and the third in the series (the second film, Brides of, dealt with a sort of faux-Dracula making like Drac and building up his own creepy harem).
Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966) sees a pair of English brothers and their wives touring around Eastern Europe when they decide, against the advice of everyone, to head to a town near Dracula's castle. They're met by a cleric who is VERY against the idea of going anywhere near the castle (which isn't on the map, and so they believe must not exist, despite the assurance it does). Being British, which in this movie means everyone who is not a British male of a certain standing must be wrong about everything, the tourists head right for the path the cleric warned against, and, hey, get dropped off right in front of Dracula's castle by a coachman who is NOT putting up with these dummies.
Helen, one of the wives, is a bit of a pill, but she is 100% right about everything and no one listens to her, which is why you want to not be a pill about everything. The foursome come across a random DRIVERLESS CARRIAGE, and GET IN, thinking they'll take it to town - I suppose because these men think a free carriage for the taking is a reasonable touch befitting their place and not at all weird - until the horses ignore their directions and dump them the crew in front of the castle.
A Lurch-like minion welcomes the quartet and sets them up comfortably.
Turns out, Drac is still "destroyed", but like Sea Monkeys and tap-water, he can be brought to life if you add blood to his ashes. So, our minion, Clove, goes about making that happen.
Like Horror of Dracula, the scale of the Dracula story here is rather small. The travelers are a small party, Dracula only ever really seems to threaten them (for all the talk about the force he is), and a lot of the movie depends on people - in classic horror tradition - making bad choices. Which, before 2020, seemed like a contrivance, but, well... While I very much liked Father Sandor, played by Andrew Kier - I became a fan of Helen (Barbara Shelley) who is the only one with any common sense and who gets to let her hair down as a vampire (even if Dracula is a bully to her).
Lee doesn't have any actual dialog in the film, and there are two accounts of how that happened. The screenwriter claims he didn't give the titular character any, and Lee says he refused to say any of the dumb dialog as it was written. I have no idea, but I tend to believe Lee. So it's weird to have your villain just sort of growling and hissing at people when he also seems to care a lot about his appearance (I mean, he always looks neat as a pin).
As promised, we're paying attention to the role of Christianity in these films, and it's hard to ignore the role of Father Sandor and his pals in the monastery. A monastery that's surprisingly cross and crucifix free. But it does show the readiness of the literate clergyman to combat evil in physical form, and, yes, there's ample deployment of the cross as a deterrent. It's NOT clear why the church hasn't just set the castle ablaze, which seems to the prudent move when you have the King of the Undead a carriage ride away*, but we at least get Father Sandor laying the smack down.
I'm making fun, but I liked the movie a pretty good deal. It's not amazing cinema, but it is a sensible follow on to Horror of Dracula and manages some genuine thrills, if not chills.
*I'm not one to call for murder, but it doesn't count when your target is an unholy monstrosity bent upon the devastation of human life, yo
PODCAST: "The Wolfman" (1941) and "Curse of the Werewolf" (1961) - Universal/ Hammer Halloween 2020 w/ SimonUK and Ryan
Watched: Wolf Man 09/26/2020 Curse of 09/27/2020
Format: BluRay/ Amazon Streaming
Viewing: Unknown/ Second
Decade: 1940's/ 1960's
Director: George Waggner / Terence Fisher
Things get hairy as SimonUK and Ryan take a look at two movies where a fellow is really not feeling himself. We look at the classic Universal take on werewolves and the lesser known entry from Hammer (Spanish werewolves!), which are wildly different in some ways, but really agree on the "sorry, you're doomed" angle when it comes to curses that turn one into a ravening beast who still politely wears trousers.
Music:
Wolf Man Main Theme - Charles Previn
Curse of the Werewolf Theme - Benjamin Frankel
Halloween 2020
Horror and Halloween
Saturday, October 10, 2020
Noir Watch: Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950)
Watched: 10/08/2020
Format: Noir Alley on TCM
Viewing: First
Decade: 1950's
Director: Otto Preminger
Before watching, I had a general awareness of Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950), a movie I've seen listed here and there as a noir-buff favorite. Starring Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney and directed by Otto Preminger, you'd think I'd have prioritized the film. I did not. No idea why.
And, of course, because noir buffs don't tend to oversell movies, the movie does not disappoint.
Thursday, October 8, 2020
Watch Party Watch: The Corpse Grinders (1971) - a Jenifer Birthday Party Extravaganza
This weekend is Jenifer's birthday, and she had suggested we pick this one for our Friday night watch party. I've never seen it, and you probably haven't, either. But we're gonna watch it. Let's find out about corpses and the people who grind them TOGETHER.
- Day: 10/09/2020
- Time: 8:30 PM Central time
AMAZON LINK - Right here, Doug
behold: the trailer!
Mystery Watch: Enola Holmes (2020)
I am *pretty* sure this wasn't aimed at me, but it was kind of delightful.
This is one highly-nit-pickable movie, and I won't say I didn't have a few times I didn't say something out loud during the movie to Jamie - but it always seemed in poor taste and not in the spirit of the thing.
Enola Holmes tells the story of Sherlock Holmes' (Henry Cavill) younger sister - a prodigy in her own right (Millie Bobby Brown), but just 16. She's been raised in the Holmes family manor entirely by her mother, her brothers having had departed shortly after their father passed when Enola was very young.
Her mother (the always wonderful Helena Bonham Carter) has raised her outside of social norms, recognizing her capacity and aware that a late Victorian-era England will ruin her with its expectations and limitations. But on her 16th birthday, her mother disappears. Flat out seems to have ducked out, leaving not exactly clues, but a few items which will provide comfort and perhaps a means of communication.
Tuesday, October 6, 2020
Disney Attempt-at-Spooky Watch: The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)
Watched: 10/04/2020
Format: Disney+
Viewing: I'm calling it a first for the whole movie
Decade: 1940's
Director: James Algar, Clyde Geronimi, Jack Kenney
So, we were hunting around for something spooky to watch on Disney+, and I saw they had The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949). I'd never seen the movie in its entirety. If I ever saw the Wind in the Willows bit that makes up the first half, I don't recall it at all.
However, the Ichabod Crane part based on Washington Irving's Sleepy Hollow is for good reasons, a Halloween staple. And, I've seen it a dozen times or so before.
Taken as a whole, this movie is very weird and unnecessary. It's clearly two stories that have nothing to do with each other slapped together with a wildly awkward framing device of a library of real books and voice over by, first, Basil Rathbone and then Bing Crosby, which tells me something about how much the left hand and right were talking to each other as this came together.
As a kid, my first real exposure to Mr. Toad was via the Disney World attraction, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, which was - I ain't gonna lie - super f'ing fun. My memory was that the ride was chaotic and goofy as hell. And I understood it was based on a fancy toad who got his hands on a car.
Well, the movie version is... kind of annoying. I don't really have another word for it. Unlike most Disney, there's no character development, and Toad just seems like a problem for everyone around him. Like, that one friend who is now on drugs and you're all supposed to make sure he doesn't harm themself or anyone else. The animation is pretty good, and it gave us the weasels that pop up in Roger Rabbit, but... yeah. This is the rare Disney animation that I just have no affection for - but weirdly like the ride.
And Ichabod itself is also strangely... boring. And there's no one to actually like. But, when you do get to the actual Sleepy Hollow scene, it's amazing work. But 5 minutes or so is not enough to carry a whole movie.
What I guess is that Walt, post-WWII, was just not all that into the animation studio stuff anymore, and you can feel his hand off the wheel in the storytelling department - something that would plague them til Little Mermaid. It's not horrible stuff, but it feels like someone let the animators just animate whatever they felt like rather than working toward a cohesive story, for two whole stories.
But, again, that Headless Horseman.
Hammer Watch: The Brides of Dracula (1960)
Watched: 10/04/2020
Format: Amazon Streaming
Viewing: First
Decade: 1960
Director: Terence Fisher
I'd not paid much attention to the non-Christopher Lee movies from Hammer that pitched themselves as Dracula, but decided this Halloween I'm going to watch all of the Draculas from the studio in order. So, next up from Horror of Dracula is the 1960 entry, The Brides of Dracula.
A prologue lets us know that the film takes place in proximity to the death of Dracula in the prior film. The opening follows the journey of a young Parisian woman headed to teach French in a school in Transylvania. She is held over at an inn (unknown to her, intentionally so) where she meets a wealthy Baroness who takes her to her castle.
Sunday, October 4, 2020
PODCAST: "Frankenstein" (1931) "Bride of Frankenstein" (1935) and "Curse of Frankenstein" (1957) - Halloween 2020 w/ SimonUK and Ryan
Watched: 09/18 (Curse), 09/19 (Frank), 09/20 (Bride of)
Format: Amazon Streaming, BluRay
Viewing: Third, Unknown, Unknown
Decade: 1950's, 1930's
Director: Terence Fisher, James Whale
Format: Amazon Streaming, BluRay
Viewing: Third, Unknown, Unknown
Decade: 1950's, 1930's
Director: Terence Fisher, James Whale
Music
Frankenstein Main Theme (1931) - Giuseppe Becce
Bride of Frankenstein Suite (1935) - Franz Waxman
Halloween and Horror
Not That Spooky Watch: Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
Watched: 10/03/2020
Format: Amazon Prime? Jamie put it on
Viewing: ha ha ha... I have no idea
Decade: 1980's
Director: Frank Oz
I think SimonUK and I are going to podcast this movie after Christmas, so I'm not going to write it up. Weirdly, despite the fact I do watch this movie fairly often - somehow I've never written it up on this site, which is kinda odd. There's a few mentions of the movie on Melbotis.com, but the format over there was kinda all-over the place.
Here's a post from back when I did DITMTLOD posts where I talk about Ellen Greene as Audrey.
Anyway, this seems like good incentive to actually cover it on the podcast this winter.
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