“The Oval Portraits of Vincent Price”

Vincent Price in MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

I have always maintained that one of the more important reasons we still revere Roger Corman’s screen adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe in the 21st Century must surely rest squarely on the shoulders of Vincent Price, who created these unique screen portraits of Poe’s most famous characters in all but one of the films directed by Corman between 1960 and 1964.

The worldwide success of THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN in 1957 and then HORROR OF DRACULA in 1958 firmly established the market for literary adaptations of classic tales of terror. This fact was not lost on Samuel Z. Arkoff and his partner James H. Nicholson who were at the time the undisputed kings of the drive-in, zeroing exclusively on the lucrative teenage audience that flocked to see their monsterific double features during the late fifties and sixties. In calling their company American International Pictures or as it was better known among the fans AIP, Arkoff and Nicholson seemed more than the right choice to take the American literary genius Edgar Allan Poe and recycle his works for the consumption of the more than receptive teenager of the 60′s – the baby boomers. The circumstances of how and why this came about are now part of the urban legend that is AIP.

It is my belief that casting Vincent Price in the HOUSE OF USHER and then following that with PIT AND THE PENDULUM cemented Price as the new King of the Horror film, replacing Boris Karloff as the new master of the macabre. The mantle could have come much sooner, in fact right after another “House” film – the ultra 3-D sensation HOUSE OF WAX and yet it did not. so we now arrive at the year1958 when Price also took a gamble on a then-unknown producer named William Castle, making what else…another “House” picture this time the tongue-in-cheek HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL. This film made Vincent Price a very rich man and still the crown of horror king was just out of reach, however his audience was beginning to identify him as a villain to relish with his unique brand of sinister performances enhanced by years of stage work, giving him style and polish. By the time Roger Corman came along with an offer to take a chance on a dream, Vincent Price was posed for greatness. His intuition to play Usher without facial hair, and with his face and hair bleached white, became a tour de force not seen in the cinema since the days of Conrad Veidt…an idol of Price’s…

Corman told me on several occasions that Vincent Price was his first and only choice to play Roderick Usher. The role established Price as the on screen voice of Edgar Allan Poe for a generation. I was one of those lucky 11-yr-olds who stood in line for that first matinee to see THE HOUSE OF USHER at the Pix theater in Hollywood during the summer of 1960. Not since 1939 had so many great films come out in the same year, not the least of which was Hitchcock’s PSYCHO. The impact of seeing Price for the first time as Roderick Usher, speaking in hushed tones, inspired one critic to refer to him as “decayed plush.”

David Interviews Vincent at Home, 1988

Many years later Vincent allowed me to tape one of his only on-camera interviews regarding his reputation as a “horror star.” The result is the now out of print DVD, “VINCENT PRICE THE SINISTER IMAGE”. During the taping I told him of my plans to do a book someday regarding his work with Roger Corman. As those who knew him well will tell you, his generosity was boundless when it came to the press, and especially to those he came to trust regarding his legacy. Vincent and I would sit down on six separate occasions to tape interviews regarding his career in films.

It is the result of one of those tapings that I am about to share with you now. These are what I like to call, out of deference to the Divine Edgar, the “Oval portraits” of Vincent Price’s Poe period. I asked him to comment on all seven films, which he did with pleasure. He generously commemorated the moment by autographing a still of himself from each film when we were through taping. I brought dozens of photos with me at the time to jog his memory. He enjoyed doing all this with that wicked sense of humor very much intact. So it is in honor of the one-hundredth anniversary of Vincent Price’s birth that we present for the first time his personal observations on his work with Roger Corman.

HOUSE OF USHER

“This film was a gamble for all of us and yet I was prepared to take a gamble because I believed in the works of Edgar Allan Poe. I felt audiences would enjoy seeing them on the screen. When I first read {Richard} Matheson’s screenplay I was a bit taken aback by the altering of relationships from Poe to what became the film HOUSE OF USHER. However, I have been down this road before with another film based on another American master, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES {1940} which I did over at Universal with a wonderful actress, Margaret Lindsey. In the novel they were brother and sister, in the film they were lovers… In both cases the spirit of Hawthorne was retained and I still feel Matheson did much the same thing when he decided to make Madeline Usher cataleptic, as well as in love with the young man who came to take her away. In Poe’s tale the man is his good friend who arrives at the House of Usher in time to witness its collapse, and has no romantic interest in the sister at all.

“The young actress who plays my sister, Myrna Fahey, was very good I thought…it was also very ironic that both she and Mark Damon looked like brother and sister. Their coloring and hair seemed to match in a truly uncanny way. Mark was prettier, of course, and I told him so every chance I got…. {laughs}

HOUSE OF USHER

“I prepared for the character of Roderick Usher by going on a crash diet before we actually started filming, the result was astonishing as I looked in the mirror I saw an albino version of Nicolas Van Ryn. I watch DRAGONWYCK on television no too long ago… I was struck by the similarities in the two characters. That was really no surprise, since Anya Seaton had placed references there in her novel in the first place. Our screenwriter Matheson is a great film buff and must have seen the film–it was obviously a reference he had in mind when he began to put the screenplay together. Roger had pitched the project to AIP as the house being the monster and it really is, especially when you see the matte work for the house itself and that coupled with Les Baxter’s music just invests the house as a living breathing entity of pure evil…looking back, Usher might be the best of all the Poe films we did, although I still think very highly of TOMB OF LIGIEA with those marvelous ruins to work with–as an actor, simply wonderful.”

PIT AND THE PENDULUM

David Del Vallel intro: As with USHER this film made a lasting impression on me as child of 11, I saw this one at the Fox theater in Sacramento. The theater itself was one of the last remaining movie palaces of the day, large and ornate in design. They placed a giant pendulum over the marqee that rolated back and forth much like it did in the film. The dual role played by Price in this film forever cemented his image as the on-screen voice of Poe for my entire generation. This one broke boxoffice records everywhere it played in 1961.

“PIT AND THE PENDULUM was a much bigger production and far more attention was paid to it in the press. I remember countless set visits from every trade paper in Hollywood and a few New York ones as well. The set and costumes were more elaborate than USHER and for once we had a pretty good cast. The young woman playing my wife was especially effective as she had this amazing face and presence that was tailor-made for this type of film. We got on almost at once. Barbara Steele was her name, although we didn’t get to know each other well; we certainly had fun making this one film together. I remember that she was rather shy and dear. She arrived on her first day barefoot…the opposite of what one would expect an Ingénue to be. She was without pretense and head over heels in love with Italy at the time.

PIT AND THE PENDULUM

“Roger had this one mapped out to perfection as far as what he was going to do with his camera and we rehearsed with the little time we had, knowing full well what was basically expected of us on the floor. Marge Corso found a beautiful dress for my wife while I wore the most uncomfortable collar since the one I had to wear over at Warner Bros years before when I was playing Sir Walter Raleigh with Bette Davis. I loved the cowl that I had to don when I was playing the evil father…that outfit is how I am remembered whenever the Poe films are brought up. I took a lot of flack for that performance with some members of the press at the time of the film’s release and even later on. It was of course my choice to go out like that, I imagine it was to be expected. Roger and I had discussed this at length and since my performance in USHER had been so mannered and fragile, I really needed to try something just the opposite in the next one. The screenplay was filled with all these grand gestures and florid dialogue…it seemed everyone was expecting this kind of performance from me…I simply let go whenever I could, hoping I was in the moment as it were.

“It was not lost on me that our writer, Richard Matheson, had done his homework, at least regarding my career. I now believe he saw LAURA in the fact that you believe my wife is dead only to have her return, and not from the dead mind you… The paintings and the harpsichord are right out of DRAGONWYCK, as is my character’s name – Nicolas. He {Matheson} did tell me during filming that he enjoyed HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, although there was none of that tongue-in-cheek humor present in his scripts during our films together.

“As I told you before regarding casting in the other two films, the real disappointment for me was trying to do period costume pictures with young actors who were simply too modern in their approach to really make these things work. The actress playing my sister {Luana Anders} was far too young in the first place and totally wrong for period films. She is a fine actress—but not in this type of film. I would say the same thing about Jack Nicholson and we all know how his career went! Once, during another interview, I was asked why it was so difficult to make pictures in this genre. I always remember something Boris Karloff used to say about being typed in horror films as he was…he said “I am grateful for the Frankenstein monster since he gave me what success I have achieved in this business, and I make the unbelievable believable. Bogart could not do what I do and neither could Gable.” I am in the same situation, you see. Jack Nicholson cannot do what I do and neither can Robert Redford, so we are all typed as to our different ways of speaking, and especially our looks.”

TALES OF TERROR

David Del Valle intro: This was an experiment on Roger Corman’s part to adapt three of Poe’s tales in one film. The result was uneven, yet it marked the beginning of a fascinating on-screen partnership with Peter Lorre that would last until Lorre’s untimely death in 1964. The wine-tasting scene is a classic moment in the cycle. My dear friend Joyce Jameson shines like a diamond in this one and her reward was to appear with Lorre again in COMEDY OF TERRORS this time with Peter as her lover!

The Morella Segmant - TALES OF TERROR

MORELLA…tale number one

“When Roger and I started to work on TALES I had already suggested earlier that we might try and include “The Tell Tale Heart” since it was the best known of Poe’s short stories and second only to “The Raven” in popularity. Roger felt it was much too violent for the screen and was usually done as a spoken word piece. Peter Lorre used to do it on the radio to great effect. All that remained of that idea, as it turned out, was the beating heart at the film’s beginning, which was a nice touch in the spirit of Poe shall we say {Laughter} I really worked on the character of Locke. Much like Usher he was trapped in his own torment and remained housebound in much the same manner. Marge Corso found me a marvelous robe with a pattern very much in the manner of Aubrey Beardsley. Marge was one of the shining stars of our little ensemble, along with Danny Haller and Floyd Crosby. They really created the atmosphere from which I was allowed to make these characters breathe. With USHER I was bleached white as a man who never saw daylight, so was Locke… I was inspired by the illustrations of Harry Clarke, a wonderful Irish artist who died much too soon and created some of the most stunning stained glass windows I have ever seen. A fan of mine sent me a book after USHER came out and it turned out to be the complete works of Poe all illustrated by Harry Clarke, who worked in both mediums. I was struck by the long shallow faces of the men he drew and I tried to make that the foundation for my character, with a long sullen face blacked out around the eyes just Harry Clarke envisioned them. Danny Haller’s sets were simply magnificent. He told me at the time that the dining room where the wedding party was to have taken place made him think of Miss Havershim in the David Lean film {GREAT EXPECTATIONS} which I also admired so much. We had a laugh at this point since this was our third film and those tarantulas were really worked into overdrive. One of the crew mentioned that we really should show more spiders, since tarantulas do not spin webs {laughs} The script was well done. Although not much of Poe survived, we did remain true to his spirit. The real problems with this particular piece was in the casting of the two ingénues. Now I had actually met Maggie Pierce. I think after USHER came out, as she was dating Mark Damon at the time. Maggie was very attractive but simply was not trained to act. Unfortunately we needed a proper actress in this role as the script was written for the two characters and the daughter needed to be strong. I complained to Roger but it was hopeless. The other woman who played my late wife had less to do, not to mention she was a stunning-looking woman and very funny. The make-up man put long vampire nails on her, turning her into his concept of a ghoul…which made us both burst out laughing. I really liked her as a person but again the role required someone like the girl we had in PIT {Barbara Steele} The segment simply could not hold up without solid performances from all of us, so the life just went out of it.”

THE BLACK CAT {tale number two}

“Peter Lorre was very depressed by the time we made TALES OF TERROR and there was very little I could do to make it otherwise. He had long ago abandoned any kind of respect for acting in films–it just paid the bills. I deliberately played Fortunato as the fop of fops because I knew it would bring out the devil in Peter. And it did. Our wine tasting scene is one of the most popular moments either one of us ever did in films, and this man worked for Fritz Lang, as I did, but years later and under less than stellar circumstances. Roger pretty much let us alone, so the kudos should go to us. Peter perked up when the professional wine taster turned up to train us in the art of wine tasting. We were both drunk by noon and having a ball. It was during this moment that Peter came up with his business of saying “it’s very good” that was an ad lib the way he did it. Personally I like to follow a script but with Peter you have to just go with the flow or lose some simply brilliant improv, as he was a master of the double take and a scene stealer of legendary proportions.”

The Black Cat segment - TALES OF TERROR

THE CASE OF M VALDEMAR

“Valdemar was an intriguing concept and at least here we had one of Poe’s most famous tales to adapt, one I believe was never filmed until ours. The most wonderful aspect of doing this one was working with Basil {Rathbone} again after many, many years. When I was first starting out in Hollywood Basil was one of my idols. His reputation on Broadway was unsurpassed. Basil was a great star on the stage and later on the screen. For this film Basil gave a grand performance in it, really evil as only he could be, I brought up his performance in David Copperfield during what little rehearsal time we had and I think he tried a little of that stony resolve that had become his stock and trade as an actor. I think he steals the scenes he is in. We had a coach on this one, as well a doctor, who was brought on set and taught Basil the art of mesmerizing me …Basil was truly one of a kind.

“One thing I do remember about this film was the make-up as Valdemar begins to rot and literally melt away. Poe wrote some very specific prose describing just how Mr. Valdemar makes his untimely exit and we did our utmost to film it that way. The process involved covering my face with this substance that was very hot so I could only wear it for a short time. I just could not stand it more than a few minutes at a time.

“I am always given photos of myself in that make-up by the fans to autograph. The ones with Debbie Paget recoiling from me are hysterical because we just could not stop laughing at the sight of me with what looked like caramel oozing off my face…it was really too much.”

THE RAVEN

David Del Valle intro: I will always remember being somewhat taken aback the first time I saw this one as audiences had no idea this was a comedy until Vincent kept bumping his head on a telescope. By the time Peter Lorre arrives, as a voice-over on a live Raven, we are very much aware that this was as far from Edgar Allan Poe as AIP dared to get without placing the series at a beach party. Boris Karloff joined the cast, and then signed contracts for more films at AIP for the remainder of his life.

“THE RAVEN was a highpoint in making these films because it brought all of us together in one film. Boris was one of the most joyful men I ever knew and lived each day to the fullest. I began my career in films with him and was there at the end of his as well. We did a Red Skelton TV show the last year of his life and he was by then in a wheelchair. During rehearsal he sensed the pity from the crew at seeing him this way, so once we were about to do the show live he stood up and walked on to the stage to do his song, and believe me there was not a dry eye in the place. That man was universally loved, especially by me. Boris was in better shape when we did THE RAVEN, walking about even with arthritis, yet he was always a total professional, as we all were on that film.

THE RAVEN

“I remember LOOK magazine sent a reporter out to cover the film and he was planning to make fun of us. After two days on that set he was so impressed with our attitude and humor that he remained for the whole shoot and returned to New York a fan. You cannot make this type of film without a sense of respect, not just for the genre and its fans, but for yourself as an actor. Even Peter Lorre was a professional, he just got away with murder because he was so dammed funny and dear.

“Hazel Court is a close personal friend, as is her husband Don {Taylor} She knows how to do this type of film and has a range that is still untapped by directors, I think she was such a good sport on THE RAVEN since Peter loved his practical jokes and she was usually the object of most of them. I remember watching from the sidelines as she and Boris did their final scene together and it just broke me up to watch Boris stare unto her more than ample cleavage as she did her lines unaware…it was bliss…

“The film was of course a comedy, and we went with that, as it did not start out that way. I think the fact Peter and I had this chemistry, and our previous film for Roger was comic as well. It just seemed to the producers why mess with a good thing, and so we were expected to let history repeat itself. I think it did to a certain extent, although it was different to work with both of them at the same time. As Boris and Peter were like oil and water as actors…very different approach to their craft. By the time Peter and I did these Poe films he had simply given up trying to be a proper actor and just did Peter Lorre for the camera, and believe me nobody could do it better. And yet, he was disenchanted with Hollywood and his career by that point. It was a bit like Orson Welles really gaining all that weight and then lampooning what it was that made you famous in the first place. It is a real tragedy to observe, especially in someone you admire, since you are painfully aware of what they could be doing with that talent, yet they choose to throw it away. I have seen this happen over and over in this business.”

THE HAUNTED PALACE

David Del Valle intro: This film will always be remembered historically as the first adaptation of H.P.Lovecraft for the screen, and it remains one of the best. The thrilling score by Ronald Stein set the mood for one of Price’s best performances in the dual role of Charles Dexter Ward as well as his evil ancestor Joseph Curwin. Price achieved this effect with very little in the way of make-up, using mainly his voice and eye movement to denote which character was in control. Lon Chaney Jr adds so much in a small but effective role as a fellow warlock who remains painted green throughout the film.

THE HAUNTED PALACE (Price as Charles Dexter Ward)

“At the time we were making it, I know Roger felt we were starting to exhaust the catalogue of Edgar Allan Poe stories available to us. I had always admired the short stories of H P. Lovecraft and even included a few in the horror anthologies I used to put together over the years. I know Boris {Karloff} admired them enough to do the same thing when he was asked to put together his collections of terror tales, as he always liked to refer to them. You know Boris was originally to have been in the film but he had a conflict so we were lucky to persuade Lon Chaney Jr. to do it. Chaney proved to be a pro in every sense of the word. I had known Lon for years, yet on that film he was not well and kept to himself quite a bit of the time. I did what I could to bring him out of his depression but it proved hopeless in the end. We had Elisha Cook on that film as well and he had known Lon from the old days when they were both contract players, yet he could not bring him around either. Lon did, however like to cook, as I do, and loved to make his own style of chili, so we did have one or two bright moments watching him make his specialty – which by the way smelled to the high heavens, as he liked it to be as pungent I must tell you. I liked him enormously, a talented actor perhaps at odds with that giant shadow his father cast over his life who was indeed a true genius in our profession…very sad he could not overcome this obstacle emotionally.

“I adored Debbie Paget. She was such a beautiful creature. You have no idea what a great beauty she was at that time…somewhat like Gene Tierney, in that the camera was in love with her. She really should have been an enormous star because that girl could act. We were in the DeMille film {THE TEN COMMANMENTS} although I did not get to know her well at the time. But all the men were simply in love with her and why not? What’s not to love?

“We had a ball making THE HAUNTED PALACE and Roger got very cross with us for breaking up so often. We had a couple of scenes in this giant four-poster bed and every time she got under the covers I would goose her causing her to laugh, as she was insanely ticklish. I really could not resist doing this to her — very wicked of me. This became her last film, you know, She actually did her last two films with me and then left the film business forever marrying Mr. [Louis} Chun King, the successful oil mogul. {King and Paget divorced in 1980}

“Roger had some great people, not to mention talented writers, on these films. Danny Haller was amazing with his designs and with what he did for so little money revamping existing sets on a soundstage…remarkable. Marge Corso made wonderful costumes–even my wife Mary admired her craftsmanship. Our cameraman, Floyd Crosby, was a genius. From day one on USHER he always set the tone, especially with the way that camera moved with each individual set up. Any success we with the Poe films was because of the them.

THE HAUNTED PALACE (Price as Joseph Curwen)

“I really enjoy the acting process; you know — leaving yourself in the make-up chair, and then stepping into these fantasy roles. In playing the warlock {Joseph Curwen} I had some real help from our make-up man, Ted Coodley, who created a green skin tone which also hardened my face a bit especially around the eyes and mouth. This allowed me to develop the character as Curwen, who was ruthless and cruel. I certainly got into character while wearing such a ghoulish make-up. Poor Lon Chaney had to stay in that make-up throughout the filming. I remember the young woman {Cathie Merchant} who played my mistress in the film causing me no end of amusement. She had this great buxom figure to begin with, but the wardrobe heightened her already ample cleavage giving her more room than the Rocky Mountains, and every time that I would glance in her direction my eyes would head down that mountain along with my concentration. She proved to be a great sport. I kidded her once as she remarked that she had no dialogue so I told her with what she had going for her there was very little that needed to be said, which made her laugh. I will always remember these films with great pleasure, even though they were hard work, we all had such a good time making them.”

MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

David Del Valle intro: We owe a debt of gratitude to Charles
Beaumont for coming up with the concept of Price as a Devil worshipper
in his first draft of MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH. Vincent shines as the evil Prince Prospero whose faith is shaken by a peasant girl whose beliefs rival his. Hazel Court is stunning as his consort whose own pact with the devil creates a fantastic moment in the film due in part to the camerawork of Nicolas Roeg.

My transcript for this film was unavailable for this article yet it will appear in my forthcoming book on the Corman/Poe cycle “SEE TO THE CRYPT” due out in early 2012.

MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH (note the goatee on the statues drawn by price)

TOMB OF LIGEIA

David Del Valle intro: Vincent always said this was his personal favorite in the cycle…filming it out of doors gave a breath of freshness to the proceedings. Yet it proved too late in the game for Corman to film another one, ending one of the most successful cycles of Horror films since the golden days of Universal studios. Eliizabeth Shepherd became a close personal friend later on in my life and we had a moment late one evening when she came to see me, allowing me to come to my front door dressed in a black dressing gown. When I opened the door I got to say Vincent’s line to her as Verden Fell would have done: “Never,Never come here unannounced!!” she was taken aback to say the least.

TOMB OF LIGEIA

“This film was a shared passion between Roger and me. Early on we had fantasized about shooting one of the Poe films in a ruin, an actual location for a change of pace. He found the perfect location in Norfolk, and it was everything I had hoped it would be. I enjoyed making these pictures with Roger because he had a real understanding of the material and was an absolute genius at getting the most out of his actors and crew. In this particular film we were fortunate to find a real actress to play both Ligeia and the Lady Rowena, Her name is Elizabeth Shepherd, a classic English beauty but more importantly a very fine actress with a solid background in theater, which is something that I can appreciate so well. In Hollywood there is a stigma against theater by film actors because they don’t really understand that it is all part of the same craft. However I do understand the difference in learning a part for the stage as opposed to doing a film, acting out of continuity in bits and pieces with long breaks between. The concept of creating a part and acting it on your own in front of a live audience can scare an actor to death, and yet it can also take that same actor to paradise if the magic is there for you, and then nothing can take the place of that applause.

“The Poe films we did in Hollywood were small casts, and sadly the younger actresses were just not up to it. Of course I am not referring to our friend Hazel or your pal Barbara, both of whom we know did beautiful work in those films. I still remember what a performance Elizabeth gave during the scene where I mesmerize her in front of the fire. In rehearsal she was as always spot on so when we came to shooting that sequence she did the whole thing in one take, playing both personalities. She was absolutely wonderful to work along side. Now our Elizabeth was saddled in the film with a dual role, and if I could show you my shooting script you would see a riot of notes as to who was playing who at any given point. We could not keep track.

“Now of course script confusion is one thing, but almost catching fire is another. Roger had this notion to simply burn the set at the conclusion of LIGEIA, and even through I have been through many on-camera fires in my career, and most of them with Roger {laughs} Elisabeth and I barely escaped with our lives in that one. Not to mention that poor black cat. We went though at least a dozen cats before it was over. The poor thing would just disappear never to return, so the animal wrangler we had would have to locate another one.

TOMB OF LIGEIA (with top hat)

“As far as LIGEIA being the last Poe film with Roger, well I could see it coming even after we did THE RED DEATH. Roger was still young enough to want to do more and was getting offers left and right. It was for him the right thing to do, of course, and he certainly deserves his success. I felt remorseful at the time when we came to the last one since no one could do these films quite like Roger. I did a few more after LIGEIA…all of them in England as a matter of fact. I found myself regretting making more than a few of them to be sure. Even the English locations cannot prevail against bad scripts. By the last days of filming LIGEIA the light was about to leave the tower signaling the end of one period and the beginning of another for us both. I shall always consider the films I made with Roger to be among the highlights of my career in film.”

Vincent Price 1911-2011….shall be lifted nevermore…..POE.

NOWHERE TO RUN
I want to be happy I want to be gay / I want to be normal in every way / But a mushroom cloud hangs over my dreams / It haunts my future and threatens my dreams
- ‘A Mushroom Cloud’ – Sammy Salvo (1961)

In 1942, Time Magazine announced that death rays “missed the bus for World War II,” and promised, “If a method is developed to concentrate nuclear radiations into a narrow beam, death rays may be available to enliven World War III.” [1] Scientists wished to achieve the degree of precision that would “kill small animals at 5,000 feet in three seconds,” but while these were still in the works [2] , salvation took the shape of a mushroom cloud.

Salvation quickly turned to threat when president Truman announced on September 23, 1949, that the Soviets detonated their own atom bomb. As the nations raced to create more destructive bombs, and with the rise of senator McCarthy and the House Committee of Un-American Activities, fear and paranoia were sifting through the cracks. WWIII, it seemed, would be the war to end all wars (literally, this time around). Annihilation, obliteration, eradication… nuclear bombs and radiation promised not just the end of life but the end of death.

Bert the Turtle is about to Duck and Cover

Susan Sontag recognized the trauma suffered by people in the mid-20th century: “it became clear that from now on to the end of human history, every person would spend his individual life not only under the threat of individual death, which is certain, but of something almost unsupportable psychologically – collective incineration and extinction which could come at any time, virtually without any warning.” [3]

And it did seem like there was nowhere to run or nowhere to hide, the “lying, dirty, shrewd, godless, murderous, determined” [4] communists were able to destroy the United States either from above, in the form of a military attack, or from within, by infiltrating culture and government. A nuclear attack, according to the educational film, DUCK AND COVER, could take two forms: With Warning and Without Warning.

Kids and teenagers were exposed to an adult world of horrors. They watched the educational films, took part in emergency exercises at school, carried around metal identification tags (‘dog tags’) [5] , watched the McCarthy hearings on television, and listened to detonations of atom bombs on the radio. Lewis Frumkes, Director of the Writing Center at Marymount Manhattan College, recalls being horrified at the age of 13, in 1953, listening on the radio to the execution of Ethel Rosenberg, who was charged with espionage: “I remember to this day with horror as they described Ethel Rosenberg being strapped into the electric chair. They said after the voltage went through her, blue smoke arose from her head. And as the voltage went through her body she shook and convulsed… it was so horrifying.” [6]

In April, 1954, defense was proposed as a school subject in New York. In classes like Home Economics for example, emergency cooking in preparation for a possible disaster could be taught. “Only if our youth is made fully cognizant of its added responsibilities as citizens in the newly evolving atomic era can we be assured of the will of our people to resist aggression and the ability of our people to survive its disastrous effects.” [7]

Middle-class economy was flourishing in the 1950s and the decade saw a great boom in teenage culture. Young Americans enjoyed financial freedom as their average weekly income quadrupled between 1944 and 1958 [8], by which time teen spending reached an estimated $9.5 billion yearly. This newfound freedom, and the changing system of film exhibition, lead to the explosion of genre cinema, and in the heart of it…

…THE ATOMIC SPECTACLE

Lee Merlin, the Last 'Ms. Atom Bomb', 1957

Pop-culture adopted the ATOMIC idea. Everybody joined in the fun: Elvis was billed as ‘The Atomic Powered Singer’; Gene Vincent was ‘The Hottest Thing Since the Hydrogen Bomb’; Miss Atomic Bomb was crowned in Las Vegas; Atomic candy was sold to kids; and an Allied Artists ad proclaiming their ‘New Box Office Power’ had a mushroom cloud as its background. [9]

The ‘Paramount decision of 1948’ separated the film studios from their theaters, resulting in their loss of control over both exhibition and audiences in the United States. Drive-In cinemas popped up all over the country, catering mainly to teenagers. This brought a slew of low-budget science fiction, horror, juvenile delinquent and rocknroll films.

This type of ‘exploitation’ cinema was a new breed between the Poverty-Row ‘B’-movie and the ‘classic exploitation’ film – alternative independent productions that relied on forbidden spectacle, namely drugs, sex, and violence – to set them apart from Hollywood product. The new producers decided that instead of being a ‘B’ to a Hollywood ‘A’ movie, they could produce their own double features and gain more capital. Their product was so popular that many of the studios hopped on the genre bandwagon as well, either by producing their own or distributing independent productions.

Many of the productions revolved around atomic fear, the consequences of radiation, and alien invasion. They offered visions of space travel, radiation-induced-giant-insects, monsters, mind control and post-nuclear worlds: “SEE! The World Ended By Atomic Fury! SEE! Fantastic World of Death and Horror!” announced ads for Corman’s DAY THE WORLD ENDED (1955). That film was so successful that after only two months in release it earned $400,000 on a budget of $65,000. [10] Susan Sontag theorizes that fantasy of destruction can normalize what is psychologically unbearable; it beautifies and neutralizes the world. [11]

Beverly Garland with a close personal friend of Lee Van Cleef's

The Alien-Invasion films often tapped into the Red-Scare, with aliens attacking earth from above but also undermining humankind from within. In Roger Corman’s IT CONQUERED THE WORLD (1956), Dr. Tom Anderson (Lee Van Cleef) is convinced that an alien invader (whom he calls “a personal friend of mine”) wants to help humans by eliminating their hate, bitterness, dreams and emotions. When the alien starts taking over the minds of the people, hysterical realists assess that they are “in the middle a communist uprising.” A logical assumption, as certain towns in the US performed security exercises that simulated a communist takeover of the town.

Even that genre was inseparable from a notion of atomic threat. Roy Frumkes, the editor of Films In Review, remembers: “The fact that they were all set in the desert really worked on my subconscious, because that was where I had heard all the bomb tests were. So when I saw a Sci-Fi film like IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE, it wasn’t about atomic war but it was set in the desert and it added this extra chill.” [12]

Aliens sometimes could cause destruction by taking over the minds of atomic scientists and researchers to use our own power against us. The Kronos (KRONOS, 1957), an alien machine described by one reviewer as “a cross between a futuristic skyscraper and a present-day kitchen appliance,” [13] sets itself on Earth and grows as it absorbs atomic energy. With every H-Bomb the government launches at it, Kronos causes more and more destruction.

Roger Corman is one of the most prolific producers and directors of these genres, and his vision, as would be discussed later in the article, is unique. Among his nuclear-related films: NOT OF THIS EARTH (1957), ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS (1957), TEENAGE CAVEMAN (1958), and LAST WOMAN ON EARTH (1960). In 1945, Corman himself was training to participate in the invasion of Japan, when the bomb went off: “I’m part of that group that said, “Thank god for the atomic bomb.” It very possibly saved my life. But at the same time, I also had to say, “My God, what a monstrous, terrible thing!” [14]

“THE MAINSPRING OF CIVIL DEFENSE”: FAMILIES AND SHELTERS

“The family is the mainspring of Civil Defense. Get your family to work as a team in preparing for emergencies,” instructed a 1955 leaflet by the Federal Civil Defense Administration. [15] On July 25, 1961, President Kennedy said in a televised address: “In the event of an attack, the lives of those families which are not hit in a nuclear blast and fire can still be saved – if they can be warned to take shelter and if that shelter is available. We owe that kind of insurance to our families – and to our country.”

PANIC IN YEAR ZERO (1960), directed by Ray Milland for American International Pictures, offers the best portrayal of defined roles in the family unit in the midst of a nuclear crisis. While on a family trip, Henry Baldwin (Ray Milland) and his family find out that their home, Los Angeles, has been wiped out by a nuclear attack. Immediately all hell breaks loose, California turns into a Wild West where law is meaningless and people have to defend themselves in its absence.

Henry knows just what to do. He equips his family with enough food to last them a few months and weapons for self defense. His son, Rick (Frankie Avalon), learns from his father about protecting the family, in preparation for his role as a future patriarch, “I want you to use that gun,” says Henry, “But I want you to hate it.” When the family functions in the normal world at the beginning they are defined by age: the kids, Rick and Karen (Mary Mitchel), are in the back seat while the parents are in the front. After the bomb drops and danger arises, the mother, Ann (Jean Hagen) moves to the back and Rick sits in the front with his father, separating roles by gender.

Henry shelters his family in a mountain cave and it is a classic fallout shelter in many ways, having enough products to last them for a long time underground while being surrounded by the immediate family. The men must hunt and the women take care of their needs, reverting to an old way of living, typical of the American Western. Although Henry’s views of society are grim to say the least (“Our country is still full with thieving, murdering patriots”), the reaffirmation that “there must be no end – only new beginnings,” prevails.

Milland and Avalon: I want you to use the gun, but I want you to hate it.

Family and shelters are inseparable and stress the importance of being informed, especially by the head of the family. When a number of individuals who don’t form a family occupy a shelter, distress and conflict arise. In DAY THE WORLD ENDED the father secures his house, measures radiation, and is handy with a gun, for the protection of his daughter. A group of strangers invade their shelter, causing violent conflict in which the only survivors are members of the existing family or soon-to-be family (the daughter’s future husband); Roger Corman’s LAST WOMAN ON EARTH (1960) suggests deep sea as a shelter but the 3 who survive the blast, a dysfunctional husband and wife and their friend, end up in a deadly conflict in which only the married couple prevails.

A police officer forms an unnatural community out of a group of strangers in THIS IS NOT A TEST (1962). Warned of a coming attack, he stops a number of cars and forces everyone to take shelter in the back of a truck, which leads to their descent into madness, murder, suicide, animal cruelty and terrible paranoia over the futile situation and the useless role of the law in the wake of a nuclear attack. When the bomb drops, the truck and everything around it is instantly wiped away.

In 1959, a contest set by Bomb Shelters, Inc. prompted newlyweds Melvin and Maria Mininson of Miami, Florida to spend a two-week honeymoon in a fallout shelter, for which they were rewarded with a real honeymoon. The Parkers of southern California did the same later that year and nine months later had a child conceived in the shelter. [16] The shelter was culturally tied to the concept of family, encouraging conformism for the sake of protection.

Bomb shelter construction must have been a mighty profitable business, but since the products were never put to the test, their real value is questionable. This is parodied in hindsight by the Happy Days episode, ‘Be the First on Your Block’ (original airdate 5/7/1974) in which Howard Cunningham buys into the pitch of a sleazy salesman and announces the building of a shelter for his family. Soon the whole neighborhood is trying to secure a spot inside it in case of an attack. In Joe Dante’s MATINEE (1993), exploitation film producer Lawrence Woolsey (John Goodman), cracks open the door to a fallout shelter using a crowbar and jokes, “boy, am I in the wrong business?” comparing the cheapness of his productions to the cheapness of the shelter product.

MARKED BY THE DEVIL – “Till it’s not true”

This is a cautionary Hollywood tale of a screenwriter/director who fought to stay visible while hustling for projects in a town where failure can gather like a cloud until there are no career choices left at all. At the very beginning of 1985 I received a phone call from my friend and client, actor Reggie Nalder, who informed me that he just confronted one of his former directors at the corner market and it turns out he was living right across the street from me.

Michael Armstrong is best remembered today as the director of MARK OF THE DEVIL, a decidedly infamous film banned in several countries due to extreme violence. When this film arrived stateside it made a fortune on the drive-in circuit with the ever-tasteful gimmick of a vomit bag given to each patron just in case the visuals proved too much. Sadly Reggie’s image was on every one of those bags, a constant reminder of a youthful accident which scarred his face forever, typecasting him to a lifetime of playing villains and monsters.

MARK OF THE DEVIL was filmed in Austria with an international cast headed by Herbert Lom as the witchfinder, a very young Udo Keir as his assistant, not to mention our dear Reggie as Albino, who relishes the torture of innocent maidens in the most appalling ways imaginable.

Since this was Michael’s first film abroad he spent the first day of shooting looking through the wrong end of the camera. By the second week things were in such a state that Adrian Hoven took over the film, relieving Mike of any more embarrassment with a predominantly German crew. Michael’s screenplay was left alone except for two very important details: first, Herbert Lom’s character was to have been a latent homosexual whose desire for Udo Keir makes him torture the young women of the village out of frustration. This was removed by Hoven, which unfortunately took away any real motivation for the lead characters.

Michael had also dreamt up a nightmarish ending where all the dead come to life and rise up at the films conclusion to torment the survivors. This ending was actually filmed and then cut from the final print. The experience would traumatize Michael as he still had not been allowed to finish a film by himself either in London and now abroad.

Michael Armstrong had been in Hollywood a little less than a year when Reggie brought him round to meet me. He had sold all his personal belongings in England and said a momentary farewell to his parents as he made his way to Hollywood to finally justify the hopes and dreams that had evaporated in the changing climate that ended the swinging sixties scene in London, and with it his self esteem.

In the late 60’s he had enjoyed a bit of attention with a small independent company called Tigon, who except for their involvement in Polanski’s REPULSION were known by their output of sex comedies and horror films. Michael had been an early supporter of David Bowie’s career, casting the then-unknown singer in his first screen appearance as “The Boy” in the experimental short THE IMAGE (1967), a study of illusion vs. reality, about an artist who destroys his creation.

Julien Barnes and Jill Hayworth listen to wrtier/director Michael Armstrong during filming of

Michael hoped to star Bowie in his first horror film, then known as THE DARK, however by the time AIP got involved, the pop star role was recast with Frankie Avalon. Neither the film nor the director survived the result, which became THE HAUNTED HOUSE OF HORROR. The head of Tigon, Tony Tenser, hired Michael to direct his dream project and then allowed the American distributors to recut the film and add scenes rendering the finished product unwatchable. One should mention that Michael’s original screenplay was quite avant-garde, with a strong sub-text of homosexuality involving the Bowie character, so chances are this would not have gotten by Tenser in any case.

In just the last couple of years, a boxed set of Tigon horror films was released in the UK with an audio commentary from Michael, who gloomily sat through the film explaining that perhaps three scenes remained that were actually directed by him.

Michael was a riot, a real funny, charming guy as I got to know that personality of his over the course of the next several weeks. Perhaps a bit camp at times, especially after a few drinks, yet it was obvious this fellow had a heart of gold, not to mention bags of talent. Michael was also a man-child who, like Peter Pan, refused to grow up. He was terribly in touch with that inner child of his, but rarely did we ever get to see the man, if he was really there at all.

He was very bright and well read in the classics, adored Opera, especially Puccini and Wagner. Michael loved to create miniature theater sets that he made in great detail by hand. He made me a three-act recreation of the Edward Gorey “Dracula” which I have to this day.

One of the things that bonded Mike and I at once was the connection to ‘Films and Filming’ magazine. Mike had written for it early on, creating a very close and personal relationship with then-Editor Robin Bean. I, on the other hand, came on after Robbie had left, with John Russell Taylor, the art and film critic from The London Times, taking charge as Editor in 1979.

Now one must explain just what was going on with ‘Films and Filming’ under Robin’s Editorship, which represented the magazine at its peak in popularity. Originally ‘Films and Filming’ was highly regarded as a serious film journal, with such respected critics as Raymond Durgnat or Sheridan Morley turning in essays and reviews with substance and style

Robin Bean saw an opportunity to create within the magazine a gay agenda that was obvious if you looked for it, and believe me the readership looked for it as sales increased with every new issue

Profiles on Warhol films, underground films like PINK NARCISSUS, FORTUNE IN MEN’S EYES – even the ROYAL HUNT OF THE SUN became a film about Leonard Whiting’s codpiece. If I could count how many covers were devoted to Helmut Berger, Joe Dallesandro, Alain Delon and especially Udo Keir (who lived with Robbie at different stages of his career). The conga line of pretty boys and studly ingénues seemed never-ending. The scholarly approach quickly went out the window, which does not mean it was any the less a film journal, it just became a bit more like an American Theater and Arts magazine called “After Dark,” which followed the same line of thought in New York.

THE LADY LIGEIA

In 1964 Roger Corman would direct his final motion picture based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe, TOMB OF LIGEIA. This film contains a tour de force performance by the most talented of all the actresses to appear in Corman’s “Poe series,” the sublime Elizabeth Shepherd.

Elizabeth embodied the beauty and essence of the “English Rose” with a mystique ideally suited to play the Lady Ligeia and essential to balance her other role of the Lady Rowena.

The production was blessed with superb production values and locations including a ruined 11th century abbey. The darkly romantic script by Robert Towne channeled the spirit of Poe with vengeful black cats, cursed Egyptian artifacts, necrophilia and the ubiquitous Vincent Price in wraparound black shades!

Elizabeth dominated the production with her own unique presence creating an unforgettable impression with her dual role, later I was surprised to learn she had tested for and won the role of Emma Peel in “The Avengers” only to be replaced after one episode due to creative differences regarding her interpretation of the character.

Ryersson & Yaccarino/The Casati Archives

By 1976 I found myself in London working with the late great John Kobal on one of his first exhibits of Hollywood Glamour Photography for the Victoria Albert Museum… John maintained a large flat that contained the Kobal Collection as well, in an area known as Drayton Court/Drayton Gardens and directly across the street lived a then-young up-and- coming director named Waris Hussein. Waris had just finished working on a BBC series entitled “Romance.” His segment was written by the woman who created the “IT” girl of the roaring twenties, Clara Bow, the playwright Elinor Glyn, her masterpiece of purple prose “Three Weeks.” The star of the piece was Elizabeth Shepherd!

Over dinner at William F’s (a favorite haunt on the Fulham Rd) Waris told us about directing this amazing actress who worked so hard on the show that at one point she broke down in tears because there was not enough time to dress her character as she should have been dressed if they were making a proper film instead of television.. Afterwards he brought us round to his flat where he gave me a large photo of Elizabeth from “Three Weeks” where she was posed lying seductively on a tiger’s skin. Waris explained she was currently living in Los Angeles and he knew she would be most pleased to meet such an admirer as myself.

Once back in Hollywood, armed with her home phone number, I wasted no time in ringing the Lady Ligeia to set up a time to call and pay my respects. Well… the end result was to be a lasting friendship with a remarkable lady, loyal in her friendships and devoted to her craft. From that first meeting I found Elizabeth to be a thoughtful caring woman who loved the theater with a passion that one does not see often enough in this business. She signed the photo Waris had given me with the following inscription:

I have many wonderful memories of Elizabeth from that period of time; I recall with pleasure taking her to see Jeremy Brett perform the title role in the west coast premiere of Edward Gorey’s “Dracula”. As the curtain went up wolves howled over the loud speakers all at once she leaned over to me and said “Takes you back, doesn’t it?” She did a number of personal appearances for KCET, our public broadcasting station in LA, as they were running her episode of ‘The Duchess of Duke St’… I gave her a pin made of shooting stars and she wore it on camera…I remember her happiness at becoming a US citizen so we threw a “Yank” party celebration complete with a charming cake in the shape of the flag we toasted with champagne as the United States acquired yet another national treasure for the arts!

Lots of Parties followed with colleagues and mutual friends like Ferdy Mayne, Martine Beswicke and Barbara Steele; in fact she and Barbara did a one act play in West Hollywood with the late Fox Harris (REPO MAN).

At the performance I attended Fox was so over the top I decided not to speak to him since I had nothing positive to say! Fox was counting on my representing him so the next day he turned up at Barbara’s apt already bombed, complaining about me for hours before her then-boyfriend Anthony Herrera came home and kicked him out. Elizabeth gave a funny, understated performance in that show and Barbara smoked cigarettes and glared at the audience as Fox Harris played out his psycho drama for the entire short run of the play. Fox is gone now and I wish I had signed him on as a client because, overlooking his ‘Wildman’ antics during that show, he was a talented actor whose work in film was cut short.

During this time Elizabeth would appear in her first horror film since LIGEIA. THE OMEN had made box-office history, not to mention millions, for 20th Century Fox, so no one was surprised when they got around to a sequel DAMIEN OMEN II. The filming began in Chicago with a young avant-garde director who felt the film did not have to follow the formula of set-piece killings but could explore a different avenue. He began to experiment with color and symbolism. Elizabeth loved what he was doing with the film and her role of investigative reporter Joan Hart, however the powers at Fox, looking at the rushes, wanted more blood and gore, so out with the young director and in with old timer ex-actor Don Taylor. Taylor arrived in Chicago, matching star Bill Holden drink for drink…they looked at the rushes together and mocked what had gone before. Soon the film began to look like what it would become – an expensive body count film with big names going to their rewards in the most gory manner possible. Elizabeth would have her eyes pecked out by a demonic crow, then blindly wanders back onto the road, only to be run over by a ten ton truck! What made this even more ironic was that director Don Taylor was married to yet another Poe heroine from the ”Corman” films, the beautiful British actress Hazel Court.

Waris Hussein arrived in Hollywood around this time, directing TV movies of the week… Waris loved to tell people he was cursed by a voodoo priest while making a film about the religion Santeria (a blending of Catholicism and voodoo) with Shirley MacLaine called THE POSSESSION OF JOE DELANEY. Everyone on that film met with some kind of mishap…Shirley didn’t make a film for nearly two years and Waris was banished forever into television!

It is amusing to remember now that Marisa Berenson was seeing quite a bit of Waris in hopes he would cast her in one of his upcoming projects. He would throw these little soirées, always screening THREE WEEKS. I remember Marisa saying after watching Elizabeth in it “Oh Waris that is exactly the kind of part I want to play.” As far as I know Marisa has never had the opportunity to display such a range! Life for Marisa in Hollywood was defiantly not a “Cabaret.”

Eventually Elizabeth would meet my friend and fellow film buff director Curtis Harrington who appreciated her qualities as well and thus began inviting her to his parties. It was during one of these shindigs that I think Elizabeth began to think more about theater and how frustrating living in Hollywood could be for theater trained actors used to working at their craft instead of waiting for an agents call. Hurd Hatfield (THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, 1944) was there, and he too felt the theater was an afterthought in Los Angeles. I had a small cocktail party for Curtis and Hurd a few days later and I noticed Hurd and Elizabeth talking more on the subject of not depending on Hollywood for a career. He certainly did not and would soon return to his home in Ireland and semi retirement.

Life often leads us on to different paths and so it was with Elizabeth who, after a few years in Hollywood, bravely chose to cast her fortunes toward Canada and the theater where she would always be appreciated for her range and ability. She came to see me the last day she was in Hollywood and after wishing her well I knew an era in my life was about close.

For the last few years Elizabeth and I had lost touch with each other as she got on with her life.

Canada proved to be the right choice, not to mention a perfect working environment for her talents. It was thrilling for me to read about Elizabeth’s many projects, which kept her busy and in demand not only in theater but films and television. In fact she had her own mystery series, “The Adventures of Shirley Holmes” as well. Her unique voice has been utilized in animated shows like the “Avenger” and the “Silver Surfer”. However it would be her work on a very special project that would bring us back together again full circle.

On January 15th 2001 Elizabeth Shepherd brought to life another remarkable lady to enhance her already formidable resume. This time the Lady is based on fact, proving once again that truth is stranger than fiction. The fabulous Marchesa Luisa Casati lived a life of unimaginable debauchery and glamour for decades, a true original until her death in 1957. The Marchesa desired nothing less than to become a living work of art. She got her wish as most of the great artists of her day worshipped at her altar of personality, immortalizing her image in almost every form of artistic expression.

This one-woman show entitled “Infinite Variety – Portrait of a Muse” was an instant success for its star. A sold out performance at the Italian Cultural Institute in New York and London both hailed her uncanny impersonation of the Marchesa as superb! In the audience for the London performance was the only living relative of the Marchesa, her grandchild The Lady Moorea Black. Lady Black praised Elizabeth as nothing short of perfection in her interpretation of her grandmother. The authors who created all this magic, Scot D. Ryersson and Michael O. Yaccaarino, have worked a miracle in Cultural scholarship. They have created a labor of love in sharing this outrageous woman’s life with a new generation of admirers. Cults are already in place for the Marchesa and their books are responsible for this renaissance. Please do yourself a favor and log on right this minute to www.marchesacasati.com and experience this goddess for yourself. As for Elizabeth Shepherd….Her image in my minds eye will always remain the Lady Rowena sitting by a fire mesmerized by her husband Verden as she quotes these lines as “Ligeia” from the pen of the Divine Edgar:

“Who knoweth the mysteries of the will? The will herein lieth that dieth not. Man need not kneel before the angels nor lie in death forever, but for the weakness of his feeble will. I WILL ALWAYS BE YOUR WIFE…..”

AUTEUR OF THE AVANT-GARDE

In January of 1978 film director Robert Florey inscribed the following dedication in the front piece of “Hollywood Annees Zero’, his book of memoirs published in French recalling the pioneer years in Hollywood “To David Del Valle This is a story of the heroic period of a Hollywood that no longer exists.” Florey was indeed an artist from another era when Hollywood became the ultimate destination for talented Europeans eager to combine artistic ideas with scenarios for the general public. His was a unique talent that allowed him to keep his vision as an avant-garde filmmaker in a non-commercial sense, only to bring that same sensibility to mainstream Hollywood features.

During the last year of his life I got to know him personally, visiting him several times at his comfortable home filled with the memories of a lifetime in the movies, not to mention a secret worthy of Bluebeard.

Robert Florey with his French posters for Frankenstein

Robert Florey arrived in America in 1921 as a correspondent for Cinemagazine. By 1925 he was directing features culminating in the extraordinary short, LIFE AND DEATH OF 9413 – A HOLLYWOOD EXTRA. He would remake this avant-garde work as a feature in 1936 entitled HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD. He would spend the next fifty years creating over 65 features and 220 television shows, not to mention books, articles and essays about the nature and history of motion pictures as observed first hand from the silent era through the advent of Television.

My admiration for Robert Florey as a director began with my first exposure to his expressionistic horror films of the thirties and forties, especially MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE, a Caligari-inspired reworking of Poe with Bela Lugosi as its star… the very same Lugosi who notoriously for refusied FRANKENSTEIN, also scripted by Florey, as it was beneath him to play a role with no dialogue! Universal gave the pair the consolation prize of Poe’s short story, with dialogue by John Huston no less…Surviving scripts indicate how different FRANKENSTEIN would have been – with Florey as its director, creating distorted camera angles with expressionistic décor establishing a truly Germanic nightmare – from what James Whale finally put on the screen.

Florey would befriend as well as direct the great Peter Lorre in two of his best-remembered Hollywood films THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS and FACE BEHIND THE MASK. Peter would correspond with Florey in hand-written letters, usually in French, throughout the forties, always beginning his letters “Mon Cher Robert.” It was obvious the two had enormous respect for each other as artists, especially since their relationship remained until Lorre’s death in 1964.

My most vivid memories of this period with Florey were the afternoon visits at his home shared with his much younger wife Virginia. He was painfully aware of the passage of time, keeping a rather macabre list of fellow directors who arrived in Hollywood the same time as he did. A red line was crossed through each name as death claimed another in this elite list of these Cinema pioneers. One day he showed me the latest update “Look, only King Vidor and William Wyler are left…soon it will be my turn.”

Usually during these visits Florey would bring out some amazing treasure to share with me. A matchbook advertising MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE or a Window card from WOMAN IN RED. One day he brought out four incredible French posters for FRANKENSTEIN, explaining that Universal gave them to him to prove his screenplay credit was on all advertising in France! (After his death I would own for a time the six-sheet for FRANKENSTEIN.)

However, one afternoon Florey changed his routine, inquiring if I enjoyed history and, in particular, Napoleon…. I must have looked a bit bewildered and said ‘yes, I find that period of history most fascinating.” With that Florey took me down a hallway to a large door with a special lock. When he opened the door I was exposed to what had to be the greatest private collection of Napoleon memorabilia you could imagine!! Florey had one of the coats worn by the little corporal in a glass case. There were priceless letters, medals, paintings, even a cannon from one of the myriad battles during the Emperor’s reign before Waterloo. I was completely unprepared for this and it showed. Florey explained that Napoleon was a lifelong obsession and this was the result! He also told me that very few of his admirers were allowed to see this room. I promised to keep his collection a secret and left that afternoon dazed by what I had seen in that locked room in what appeared to be a regular hilltop home for a successful man of his accomplishments.

A year later Robert Florey died, leaving his widow Virginia to sort out this mammoth collection of letters, photos material from a lifetime in the movies, not to mention the Napoleon collection. A few months ago I had dinner with a colleague archivist and film historian Marc Wanamaker who also knew the Florey’s at the same time I did. He explained to me that much younger Virginia had a lover during the last few years with Florey, a cameraman who knew them both as it turned out. The bulk of his letters and memorabilia went to a University in his name but the Napoleon collection was a mystery because Virginia did not really understand its value therefore she did not contact the museums in France or in this country for that matter. The items were sold through auction, which was a shame, as I know he would have wanted the collection to stay intact. Robert Florey was a true gentleman of the Cinema, who lived a long and charmed life, watching the art form he so adored turn decade by decade into what it has become in the 21st Century…

Fast food served here…gourmets need not apply!

AFTER LUNCHING AT BAXTER’S

One of the advantages of being a child of the sixties was the thrill of attending each Saturday matinee to see for the first time films like PIT AND THE PENDULUM and HOUSE OF USHER. The atmosphere that Roger Corman created for these films was aided immeasurably by the music composed for these productions by Les Baxter. I knew nothing of this man’s work beyond his film scores, which would number most of the American International beach party flicks as well as the company’s substantial horror output. For me Les Baxter was the MAN…the musical equivalent for that magic period of films with Price and Poe.

Flash forward to the early eighties when I began tracking down the survivors of those films, doing interviews with not only Roger Corman and Vincent Price but also Daniel Haller and a host of supporting players. It was only after I got to know MGM photographer Ted Allan that Les Baxter would become part of my inner circle of friends during those party days in Beverly Hills.

Ted introduced me to Les with the knowledge that “he was living out in Chatsworth in exile and rather lonely.” One must remember that in the eighties the interest in Lounge music was non-existent, leaving the majority of Les Baxter’s musical catalogue forgotten.

It didn’t take long to see that Baxter was living in a very dark space career-wise, feeling out of touch with ‘Today’s music,’ overly conscious of his age, and carrying a serious weight problem as well.

I recognized this malaise at once as part of the Hollywood obsession with youth affecting everybody in the business… actors, writers and yes, composers as well. Les had once been the darling of Capitol Records until the advent of the Beatles and the British invasion left him feeling out of fashion. Not to mention out of work.

Les became even more isolated living so far out of mainstream Hollywood in the hills surrounding Magic Mountain and Cal-Arts. He was a composer in exile from the show business he loved. The young Turks that ran the music industry had turned their backs on the ‘King of Exotica.’

When I came along, so in awe of his film work, he responded warmly to my attention and we bonded almost on the spot. Les Baxter really needed a friend at this time in his life, and soon we were going to films together as well as many dinners in and around Hollywood, Not to mention those poolside weekends with the mountains surrounding his house making you feel like you could be in Montana! Les loved to garden and raised many prized flowers in his home in Chatsworth, as well as having had a showplace in Hawaii for a number of years. I discovered that Les had a knack for selling his beautiful homes before they went up in value. These losses were just another part of his depression.

He was still composing, even trying his hand at disco with a song entitled “I like Pretty Boys” with lines like “I want to go with Rob Lowe.” Les was so aware of his non ‘hip’ image that he hired a male model to take his music around town, pretending that the model wrote the music…. all of this was way too “Phantom of the Opera” to bear, so I persuaded Les to get an agent to represent his work once more and deal with the age thing without ghosting someone else.

Les Baxter in the blue jacket with legendary MGM photographer Ted Allan

Looking back I wish I had been more aware of the incredible reputation Les Baxter had in the world of Exotic music. And had we but known that lounge music was just a few years away from making him a star all over again. Les had enjoyed so much fame and attention from people like Frank Sinatra and Mel Torme that this current rejection was making him bitter and unhappy. One of the things that apparently set off this negative feeling in the industry was his suing John Williams for lifting some of his music for ET on November 2nd 1982. The case was decided in Williams favor, causing Les to not work on a film for the rest of the 1980’s. During this period Les would invite the Ted Allan’s and myself up to his house, There he would turn off all the lights and play a tape of the score to THE BEAST WITHIN. Needless to say the music was light years away from the film itself which was too grade Z to ever bring Les Baxter into mainstream film music again. All of these variables gave Les little to hold onto as far as the future. He loved the music of Carnival and the sounds of Rio, so for a time Les would work on new music allowing the Brazilian beat to reinvent his image and somewhat restore the Master of exotic sound-scapes to his rightful place once more.

Les Baxter was the kind of man you wanted to shelter from the unpleasant side of show business as his talent made him at once child-like and innocent, as well as destructive and self-pitying. The greatness that resided in Baxter would manifest itself whenever he chose to play his music in public. Many times he would have people over and play the piano, making time stand still as his sound-scapes swept over you, allowing the listener to be a stranger in Paradise at least for an afternoon.

I had not spoken to Les Baxter in several months when I read of his death in the trades. All I could think of was how happy little things like a great meal or a well tended garden could make him. We lost a unique talent that day and one that we will not see the like of again.

NEVER FALL IN LOVE WITH YOUR CLIENTS

In past editions of this column I have mentioned my former career as a Hollywood talent agent, which eventually led me back to journalism after three years of toiling in and out of an industry I never much cared for, as it existed in 1979.

The current guild laws regarding sexual harassment are clear and well enforced today, but in 1979 it was very much like it was back in the heyday of agents like Henry Willson. My friend and colleague Robert Hofler has just published a book on Willson, co-incidentally in time for another of Willson’s clients, Tab Hunter, to put out his views on Hollywood and being gay in the fifties.

Robert and I spent a great evening in the bar of the Peninsula hotel discussing Henry Willson for a then-to-be-published expose for Vanity Fair. The text he submitted to them was rejected and rather then give up what amounted to several thousand words Robert turned the essay into a book

My friendship with Henry Willson began one evening at a West Hollywood cocktail lounge known with a nod and a wink to Tennessee Williams as ‘The Garden District’. This nightspot was the favorite watering hole for survivors of the ‘Golden Age of Hollywood’ as well as the bronze! Hermoine Gingold could be seen in a booth with her fantasy sibling photographer Roy Dean, well established for his male nudes free from hard-ons! of which Roy was very proud! Not to mention older show biz types looking for younger show biz types and so on. It was on one of these Saturday night free for alls that Roy introduced me to the creator of the Adonis factory himself, Henry Willson. Henry was a regular on Saturday nights positioning himself at the bar with a stool left open for the next Tab or Rock or Guy to show up and get famous, or so they thought. Roy had mentioned the fact that Henry was a regular there and now was my opportunity to get some essential pointers from the master agent himself.. I had heard so much negative feedback about Willson from agents who basically did the same thing to their clients without achieving the same results like creating the next Rock Hudson.

Henry was a smooth talker, not to mention a namedropper of epic proportions. His names however were worth dropping since Lana Turner, Joan Fontaine and Natalie Wood were all former clients of his, so bring it on was my motto. We liked each other right away and he did give me some sound advice regarding the promotion of actors as well as publicity and how and when to use it. The one piece of advice that I never forgot and it even found its way into Robert’s book was “Never fall in love with your clients!” When Henry passed this on to me I replied “Henry, with my client list this isn’t a problem!”

Henry Willson had been not only a press agent for Selznick in the good old days, but for a time he was the most powerful agent in Hollywood. His so-called ‘Adonis factory’ had manufactured Guy Madison, Rory Calhoun and Tab Hunter. It was through his creation of Rock Hudson from the meek lad once known to his mother as Roy Fitzgerald that both men would ascend the heights of Hollywood immortality. Henry loved to dream up butch monikers for his golden boys, and Hollywood laughed behind his back as one after another of these home made hunks would rise and fall in the Hollywood meltdown known as stardom. This was not the case with Rock Hudson…directors like George Stevens and Douglas Sirk would make sure that Hudson’s star stayed bright and glowed on for decades after Henry Willson would fade from view. The tragedy for Henry Willson was that he broke his most cardinal rule and fell in love with his Eliza Doolittle.

I would see Henry at the Garden District every other weekend for around a year and sometimes would take him to screenings if the film interested him at all. However one Saturday came and went with no appearance from the star maker. This happened the following week as well, and some of us grew concerned over Henry’s well being. A mutual friend and actor named John Wyche came in the club with the news that Henry Willson was out at the Woodland Hills motion Picture home. His heavy drinking had led to health problems; age and depression did the rest. I made it a point to see Henry Willson out at the home at least twice a month as did other of his former clients, but never a word from the one that meant the most – the boy who came to him as Roy and walked away a Rock.

PAIN! INJECTION!! EQUALS “BOOM”

The reputations of Tennessee Williams and the wildly extravagant Burtons were tested beyond artistic limits when the trio chose to embark on a screen version of Williams ill received play ‘The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore.’ When this play finally limped into New York it lasted for less than 50 performances and closed. The play was blessed or cursed depending on your loyalties, with a star turn by Tallulah Bankhead as Flora Goforth and Tab Hunter as Chris Flanders, the Angel of Death and full time hustler. The director of this disaster was filmmaker Tony Richardson, who should have known better than to try and make sense of a play that was written in cipher, since Flora Goforth was Tennessee on a bum trip…the playwright had long since gone the way of booze and pills and with the death of his partner Frank Menlo. The addition of hustlers pretty much fills in the character. Visconti had long suspected that most of the flamboyant hothouse female leads in Williams work were thinly veiled versions of Tennessee when the celebrated director of Italian décor announced, “Tennessee You are Blanche!” Sadly he was also Flora Goforth as well! Enter Joseph Losey, the great director who changed the face of British Cinema with THE SERVANT and kept raising the mark right up to his conversion to the ‘jet set’ life style of Liz and Dick. Losey fell in love with excess and the couple who led him astray were far too busy buying yachts and world class jewels to care. The film adaptation of ‘Milk Train’ was shot at great expense in Sardinia by Universal with a script by Williams himself! Taylor, who managed a triumph in VIRGINIA WOOLF, knocks herself out trying to be Tennessee in a series of outlandish costumes and wearing her own jewels. Taylor is almost beyond criticism. The Gay aspect is represented by Sir Noel Coward as The Witch of Capri who is also quite beyond description, but then the whole film is a gay something or other, so bring it on…! The role of the muscled blond Adonis who appears at the bedside of rich old queens (read ladies) is now interpreted by Richard Burton, whose hangovers show, as does his waistline…fortunately his voice and personality somewhat make up for this casting faux pas. Had BOOM been made a few years later with an all male cast it might have made a little more sense. I kind of like it this way since the result is so outrageous. BOOM is one of the classic bad films of all time. The Cinematheque, with Outfest, sponsored a screening of BOOM to a full house. I feel the time is right for a DVD presentation of this landmark of Gay Camp. Hopefully Universal will oblige in the very near future. The film has so many unforgettable moments it should be a midnight movie like PINK FLAMINGOS. My personal favorite moments are Liz and Sir Noel having a midnight supper on the terrace of her Island hilltop retreat, not to mention Burton in a black kimono, intoning the title over and over as the waves hit the side of the Island….”Boom…Boom…” Get the picture?

HARD THE FILM

In the last few columns I have tried to profile a new experimental or independent film as I discover them. This time I have come across a low budget film that should have made all the festivals as a factual account of a serial killer who preyed on the gay community and the closeted gay cop that tries to bring him to justice. The co-writer as well the cameraman on this film, John Matkowsky, has created the gritty look of a documentary for this gruesome retelling of a true story based on the book ‘Outside the Badge’ by former policeman Mitch Grobeson. The film is light years away from CRUISING in its realistic approach to the material by new director John Huckert, with acting to match. There is no false note to be heard as this difficult film unfolds its tale of madness and murder made all the more frightening because it is real. The Gay Community was also hard pressed to endorse this film as they cringe from films about serial killers in the gay world, but they exist and so does this film so get used to it.

I must thank John Matkowsky for making this dvd available to Camp David. You can find out more about this film and where to order a copy from www.hardthemovie.com

Fans of detective films and well as the Horror buff will not be disappointed.

Remember until next time, may all your nightmares be in 70mm!

NOIR CITY

Recently I had the pleasure of finally meeting one of the true authorities of film noir author, historian and host {The Czar of Noir} Eddie Muller. Mr. Muller has presented film noir festivals all over the United States. His visits to Los Angeles and the wonderful program he hosts year after year at the American Cinematheque is reason enough to honor him both here in Camp David as well as with a round of applause from film lovers everywhere.

I have seen so many great, not to mention rare, films thanks to Eddie that we both marveled that it took us to the year 2005 to connect. His website www.noircity.com is a must for anyone that loves film especially the classic era of noir. Mr. Muller’s candid recollections of an evening in Hollywood trying to keep tough guy Lawrence Tierney in tow is a beautiful piece of observation. I cannot recommend too strongly that you give his site the once over for even more remarkable journalism and clever visuals.

Eddie Muller with noir legend Ann Savage

Eddie has been responsible for seeking out and preserving many films that were in danger of being lost. Look for Eddie Muller’s books on film noir. If you find yourself in the bay area, log on to his website for times and locations for local screenings.

As a poster collector for many years I particularly enjoy his volume “The Art of Noir” which showcases the crème de la crème of film poster artwork both here and abroad. I still want the Italian two-sheet from THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI, a stunning rendition of Orson Welles and then-wife Rita Hayworth.
Mr. Muller is a novelist with a talent for what else…crime!! Eddie is at the moment co-authoring the long awaited bio of Tab Hunter entitled “Tab Hunter Confidential” which will address the actor’s private life as well as his long career as one of Hollywood’s heartthrobs which will debut later this year. More on that here at Camp David.

Camp David's David Del Valle, with Roger Corman

CORMAN AT THE AERO

When I first arrived in Hollywood one of my prime obsessions was to document all the principals involved in creating the Vincent Price/Roger Corman Poe films of the 1960’s. After nearly two decades I have come to the end and will soon publish the results in a volume to be called “Nevermore: The Poe films of Roger Corman”. A few weeks ago Roger and I were reunited at the Aero Cinema in Santa Monica for a retrospective of his Poe films and a chance to talk in front of a live audience. We talked for over an hour to a full house that included Julie Corman and Roger’s two daughters as well as actor/producer Mark Damon. Mark was the romantic lead in HOUSE OF USHER and spoke from the back of the house to both of us during the Q&A. At nearly eighty years of age Roger Corman is still running a film company that releases on an average of 15 films a year! He maintains the workload of a man half his age. He spoke lovingly of his working relationships with such icons as Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, Jack Nicholson and especially the legendary Vincent Price. He discussed the period when Ray Milland came to work at AIP, appearing in the only Poe film not the star Price. Roger made it clear that Milland did not try to impersonate Price in any way during the filming of THE PREMATURE BURIAL and was quite capable of putting his own stamp on a role. After all, Milland won the Oscar and enjoyed a long successful career prior to making such unlikely films as THE THING WITH TWO HEADS!!! We here at Camp David look forward to saluting Roger Corman on his hundredth birthday when the time comes, after all we have seen the 21st Century reexamine Corman’s work, finding much to admire and learn from for future generations

TASCHEN BOOKS

An amazing new bookstore has come to Beverly Hills in the guise of a 1920’s Parisian salon complete with an Art Deco coffee bar with what can only be described as an ‘H.P. Lovecraft inspired’ ice sculpture that inhabits the center space. Only Benedikt Taschen {the former comic book king} could have imagined such a combination of styles that confound the eye and stimulate the mind. The store is located in the heart of BH on Beverly Dr. Check the Taschen website for directions. His film books do the same, with this year’s “Stanley Kubrick Archive” a definitive study of the director’s films. The text is secondary to its presentation – a giant coffee table book of great beauty! It rivals last years “Some like it Hot” book also from Taschen, the planet’s most advanced publishing house.

Jay Jennings, Director.

IFC SHORT FILMS

When it came time to film my interviews with directors Harry Kumel and Roger Corman, I used the services of maverick filmmaker Jay Jennings commit them to video. Jay has directed and photographed his own film, and is ready to submit it to IFC Channel for their short film series. A gritty crime tale in the manner of BAD LIEUTENANT, LOAN SHARK, with its hip hop soundtrack, is a no-holds-barred view of a day in the lowlife of a man who uses violence like other men swear. Have a look at www.loansharkmovie.com. I personally think it’s a prime candidate for the Sundance circuit. Bon Chance! Jaybird!!!

LOVE THE JOE BOY!

Warhol super star Joe Dallessandro is a true survivor of the New York/Hollywood scene with a natural ability to attract attention wherever he goes. Like the Lou Reed song he inspired, Joe’s walk on the wild side included a trek to Europe and more strange films that forever immortalize his image as the ultimate hustler movie star! A tribute to that image was just celebrated at the American Cinematheque. The ultra rare English track print of Serge Gainsbourg’s notorious “JE T’AIME MOI NON PLUS”(1976) with cult singer/actress Jane Birkin was the first of three films to showcase our Little Joe. A strange free wheeling flick regarding the exploits of two gay garbage men who wander the French countryside for adventures only to find our hero falling for a boyish Jane Birkin!!

There was a really great documentary on Jane Birkin and her career after the death of partner Serge Gainsbourg. She has mellowed into a fantastic personality and will remain an icon in France and most of Europe for that matter. It is a complement to Joe that he can hold his own on camera with strong women like Jane Birkin or Sylvia Miles in the very funny Sunset Blvd takeoff HEAT. A little post screening party took place at The Erotic Museum across from the Egyptian with our Joe the center of attention, as he should be.

NERVES OF STEELE

Barbara Steele

In my last column we observed cult queen Barbara Steele planning her visit to “Big D” in the state of Texas to witness the marriage of Stuart Whitman’s son to a local heiress. It should be noted that Barbara also co-produced two made-for-TV films this year, SAVING MILLY for CBS, and OUR FATHERS for Showtime. “Madeleine Stowe gives an extraordinary, Meryl Streep-quality performance in MILLY. I hope she goes up for an Emmy” said Barbara of the former, and about the latter film, based on the child abuse scandal in Boston, with Christopher Plummer as Cardinal Law, Brian Dennehy and Ted Danson, she was impressed not only by the script, but by the fact that Dan Curtis was able to direct two such complex shows back to back.

JOAN CRAWFORD LIVES!

To coincide with the release of the new DVD boxed set of Joan Crawford (which will include the never-before-seen-on DVD-or-tape THE DAMNED DON’T CRY), please have a look at the new issue of Scarlet Street magazine for your own Camp David reporter’s essay on FEMALE ON THE BEACH with a short interview with one of the stars, Natalie Schafer of Gilligan’s Island fame. One of La Crawford’s great lines in the film: when asked how she likes her coffee, she replies “Alone”! Read my review here in films in review for QUEEN BEE to understand my fascination with “JOAN”.
Until next time Remember: may all your dreams be in 70mm and Cinemascope!

Eureka Video
Black & white / Running time approx 70 mins

Seymour Krelboyne, an inept but well-meaning assistant at Gravis Mushnik’s Skid Row flower shop, is haplessly in love with fellow shop assistant Audrey. When Mushnik threatens to fire him unless his work improves Seymour brings in a plant of his own, a unique one that he’s been propagating at home and which he calls ‘Audrey Jnr.’, hoping it will interest the customers and get him back into Mushnik’s good books. It works and the shop is suddenly bustling with new customers. Unfortunately Seymour discovers that Audrey Jnr. needs a special kind of food to keep it alive: Human blood. And the bigger it gets, the more it needs, but without the plant he will not only lose his job but also his beloved Audrey…

With a working title of THE PASSIONATE PEOPLE EATER, LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS is very similar in plot (?) line to Corman’s offering of the previous year, A BUCKET OF BLOOD (not surprisingly also written by Griffith) in which Dick Miller, the plant chewing Burson Fouch (‘I like to eat in these little out of the way places’) of LITTLE SHOP (and who would play in many other later Corman and similar genre flicks), plays a Seymour-esque nerdish character working in a Bohemian cafe and who is jealous of his artistic customers. One day, after accidentally killing his landlady’s cat and encasing it in plaster to conceal his crime, he is suddenly acclaimed as a brilliant sculptor. Obviously to maintain the illusion he must produce more works of art and, like LITTLE SHOP, things start to get nightmarishly, but amusingly, out of hand. A BUCKET OF BLOOD doubtless served as a dry run for this slicker and funnier follow up.

With a script written in a week and filmed, according to Corman, in two days and one night, LITTLE SHOP makes Robert Rodriguez’ EL MARIACHI pale into insignificance as an exercise in low-budget movie making. Corman even made use of an existing store-front set to serve as Mushnik’s flower shop and had to rush filming before the set was due to be demolished. The beauty of this piece though is that the low (reportedly $22,500) budget doesn’t matter. Other low-budget B-movies suffered because they were over ambitious, took themselves too seriously and were consequently let down by their meagre budget. LITTLE SHOP does none of this. It accepts it’s limitations and glorifies in them. It’s many charms are probably, and most likely, a result of the rushed filming, like the fact that the shop owner’s name listed in the credits is Mushnik, but the sign outside the shop reads ‘Mushnick’s’. With it’s witty black comedic script, it’s bizarre scenario, it’s preposterously melodramatic performances, it’s quirky, sleazy jazz score and it being a parody of those other B-movies, the cardboard sets are totally appropriate. As a serious piece of work it would have failed miserably; as it is it’s a gem.

Roger Corman himself cites this as the movie that established him as an underground legend. Screenwriter Charles Griffith, who had also penned IT CONQUERED THE WORLD (’56), ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS (’57), the aforementioned BUCKET OF BLOOD and would go on to write, amongst many others, PLEASE DON’T EAT MY MOTHER (’73), DEATHRACE 2000 (’75), and SWINGING BARMAIDS (aka EAGER BEAVERS (no; I don’t believe it either) (’75)), also appears as an ill-fated hold-up man and gave voice to the insatiable Audrey Jnr. with the infamous bellowing cry ‘Feed me! Feed me now!’. The film also importantly features Jack Nicholson in his first feature role, albeit about five minutes, as a masochistic dental patient, a role in which he takes a relish that hints of things that were to come.

The Eureka release has no features to speak of except for some minimal onscreen text information about the production, but both picture and sound have been digitally remastered and fully restored and the menu is carefully designed to be complimentary to the film’s opening titles. It’s a reasonably nice package but a Corman commentary would have been a plus. Maybe in the future.

The film is also available from Dark Vision, Waterfall Home Ent. Int. Ltd and Elstree Hill Entertainment. It is also to be found on two compilation DVDs: ALIEN PREDATORS from Brentwood Home Video which also reportedly features DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS, GRAVEYARD TRAMPS and TRACK OF THE MOONBEAST (but actually does not feature DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS but instead KILLERS FROM OUTER SPACE which in itself is a measure of the quality of this release) and also on 3 CLASSIC HORRORS OF THE SILVER SCREEN VOL.3 from Classic Entertainment which also features Vincent Price in THE BAT and Ed Wood Jnr’s BRIDE OF THE MONSTER. Out of all these I believe the Eureka release to be the best currently available.

Wherever you acquire it, it’s a minor classic, retaining the rough edge that the subsequent stage and movie musical versions sadly polished away.

Cast:
Jonathan Haze: Seymour Krelboyne
Jackie Joseph: Audrey Fulquard
Mel Welles: Gravis Mushnik
Dick Miller: Burson Fouch
Wally Campo: Det. Sgt. Joe Fink/Narrator
John Shaner: Dr. Farb
Jack Nicholson: Wilbur Force

Crew:
Directed by Roger Corman
Written by Charles (B.) Griffith

DVDs are proliferating more quickly then the cane toads of Australia, and that, judging from the First Run Features DVD release (Cane Toads: An Unnatural History; 65 mins, color), is a pretty frightening phenomenon. I don’t know if it qualifies as Halloween screening material…but for a documentary it comes close. Very tongue-in-cheek, rather enlightening, and a bit too long for its own good.

In this country, when you’re making a film near an hour in length, they suggest tightening it to 55-57 minutes so that it can be shown on tv with room for commercials. What kind of a running time is 65? Besides, with seven or eight minutes less, or even five, its seams wouldn’t have shown.

From Universal we have perhaps fifteen recent spooky titles on DVD, and what’s mindboggling is that I believe the studio actually planned their release for the Holiday season. I’ll mention two here.

The remastered, more elaborate Collector’s Edition release of their previously distributed An American Werewolf in London, finds director John Landis in great form dolloping out devilish doses of black humor, and counterpointing the rock standard ‘Blue Moon’ with Rick Baker’s daringly overlit lycanthropic transformation, the absolute state of the art in Special Makeup until CGI stepped in several years later and complicated the issue. Landis isn’t on the commentary track, though he is present in an interview. Instead, the commentary features cast members David (the pathotic werewolf) Naughton, and Griffin (his unlucky friend and victim) Dunne. Rick Baker also discusses his work in a separate supplementary piece.

As a double bill with the above, also from Universal, check out the original 1935 Werewolf of London, featuring Henry Hull and Warner Oland as two lost souls out for blood. This one may creek a bit, but there are some clever effects, and what could be more satisfying than experiencing the history of it all? Since the orig lacks the humor of the remake, make it the first screening of the evening.

Universal has also chosen at this time to release Son of Frankenstein & Ghost of Frankenstein, Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman & House of Frankenstein, Dracula’s Daughter & Son of Dracula, The She-Wolf of London & Werewolf Of London, The Mummy’s Tomb & The Mummy’s Hand, and The Mummy’s Curse & The Mummy’s Ghost. Hopefully, from the way I used my ampersands, you deduced that these are double-bills. Gone are the extraordinary productions that we saw over the previous two years, spearheaded by David Skal and featuring remarkable documentaries and commentary tracks, but…I guess the trade-off is that we are being delivered so incredibly many of them. The transfers are excellent, the films are great fun, with a few less fun than others, and I bet there are collectors out there grousing about the omission of House of Dracula, or the Invisible Man sequels. But I think that’s really looking a gift horse in the mouth. (Although, come to think of it, I wish the 1934 Karloff-Lugosi-Ulmer The Black Cat would still be given the royal treatment.)

And though David Skal is nowhere to be found on these new releases, he is lurking at your neighborhood Barnes and Nobles, just in time for Halloween, with a revised edition of his comprehensive insight into the genre, ‘The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror.’ Watch the films in the evening, then read the book before you go to bed, and guarantee yourselves a nightmare or two.

MGM has given us a slew of goodies, mainly exploiters, for the holiday, and that’s fine, is it not? Several are Roger Corman concoctions, but I’d go with two of their ‘Midnight Movies’, It! The Terror From Beyond Space (69 minutes, 1958), and The Monster That Challenged the World (84 minutes, 1957), B’s, but damn good ones. You can sit there amused at the low budgets and B-film thinking and still revel at the tight stories and moderate amount of satisfying thrills.

I’m sure I’m the last one to inform you that It! is the indisputable source material for Ridley Scott’s Alien. Director Edward L.Cahn (1899-1963) spent his celluloid life toiling in second feature bins. He surfaced in ‘A’ territory briefly, in ’32, with the Walter Huston (as Wyatt Earp) starrer, Law and Order. However, later it was titles such as The Creature With the Atom Brain all the way. Clearly he had no pretentions in regards to his career. Which is alright; he made a nice little programmer anyway. The screenplay is by ‘Twilight Zone’ scribe Jerome Bixby. One thing to be aware of: on the back jacket cover the MGM home video people got a little carried away and identified the film as being in color. There was no color when I saw the film back in the theaters, still no color when I cherished my bootleg 16mm print, and there’s no color on the DVD either.

The Monster That Challenged the World, following in the podprints of such giant bug/mollusk delights as Them! and The Black Scorpion, has a serviceable performance from a somewhat bloated Tim Holt, whose career didn’t go forward in stellar fashion after either The Magnificent Ambersons or, somewhat later, The Treasure of Sierra Madre. It’s nice to see him again, even fighting giant sea snails. Director Arnold Laven, stuck in the exploiter swamps, rose above it by becoming a producer on Sidney Pollack’s The Scalphunters in 1968, which starred Burt Lancaster. Again, if you’re a lover of these little thrillers, you’ll feel, as I do, that the man had nothing to be ashamed of.

Double Bill these two, for a nostalgic return to the wonderful, terrible world of the 50s, when the fear was that science would go awry, and nature would strike back.