Welcome to another Monday and another day closer to Halloween! Hopefully that makes the day a little more palatable. Last week’s photo was from the 1987 film The Curse, based on the H.P. Lovecraft story, The Colour Out of Space. Congrats to the following for sending in the correct answer: Lee Nattrass, JS Scott, and William Wilson.
Now on to this week’s photo. Could be a tough one. Just send your guess in through email, to jon@kitleyskrypt.com. Good Luck!
Hollywood Cauldron: Thirteen Horror Films from the Genre’s Golden Age
Published by McFarland, 1994. 404 pages.
By Gregory William Mank
While this is not a new volume, originally published in ’94, and republished in soft cover format in 2001, it is one that I finally decided to dive into. The film covers 13 different titles from the “Golden Age”, from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932) to Bedlam (1946). With each title, Mank covers the production facts, such as who’s in it and what jobs they had, then going through the plot of the film. The real beauty of this is the information given during the story and after it. Mank always brings so much more information about the different actors, the production itself, and little bits of trivia that makes his writing so interesting, as well as entertaining. Such as the paintings from The Picture of Dorian Gray. I knew Ivan Albright painted the “evil” painting of Gray, but had always thought he painted both “good” and “evil”. As it turns it out, his twin brother painted the “good” one, but it wasn’t used. The one used in the film was done by Henrique Medina. Shows you’re never too old to learn something!
I don’t need to really go into much more details because if you’re at all familiar with Mank and his work, then you know exactly what I’m talking about. If you’re not familiar, then you need to fix that. His style of writing is one that gives you the facts, but presents them in ways that are interesting, easy to read, and I’m pretty sure you’ll come away with knowing much more than you did before hand.
If you’re a fan of the films of the golden era, then this really is a must.
When growing up in the early ’70s, when much of your time is spent in front of the television, you see a lot of actors and actresses over the years. Some stick in your head more than others. Diana Rigg was one of those actresses. Probably best known for either her role as Emma Peel in the British TV show The Avengers, where she appeared from 1965 to 1968, or the fact that she was the only actress to become Mrs. James Bond, in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), as well as more recently appearing in the series Game of Thrones (2013-2017). No matter what she was in, even in a personal favorite of mine, The Great Muppet Caper (1981), she was always memorable.
Strangely, she had a couple of genre appearances. In 1995, she appeared in a television version of Henry James’ famous story, Turn of the Screw, called The Haunting of Helen Walker, starring Valerie Bertinelli and Michael Gough. But it is her role as Edwina Lionheart, daughter of the famed (and demented) stage actor Edward Lionheart, played wonderfully by the one and only Vincent Price, in Theater of Blood (1973).
The news came out quickly that she had passed away from cancer at the age of 82. No matter what film or TV show you know her from, we all know that she will always be remembered. Our thoughts go out to her friends and family.
My good friend Kevin… I mean Bryan Martinez, came over to the Krypt a week or so ago to have me on his podcast. There is nothing I love more than talking about the horror genre, but we also touched upon other things such as my book, Discover the horror, conventions (go figure), and just being a fan in this day and age. Somehow it was only an hour, because I know I could ramble on for days about this stuff!
So if you have an hour commute or just some time to kill, click on one of links below for a fun conversation. Or even check out some of his other shows. You’ll be entertained, that is for sure.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/film-deviant/id1516138856?i=1000490658231
https://soundcloud.com/bryan-martinez-14/film-deviant-podcast-ep19-jon-kitley?ref=clipboard
Our favorite Drive-In, The Midway Drive-In in Dixon, IL, announced yesterday that on Saturday, October3rd, they will be screening THREE Universal Classic horror films on their huge 90-foot screen! If you’ve never seen one of these classic titles on a big screen like this, it is not to be missed!
They will be screening: The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) with Boris Karloff returning as the monster looking for a mate, The Wolf Man (1941), with Lon Chaney Jr., and finally Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948). Now some may say this isn’t really one of the Universal Horrors because of the comedy duo, but you’d be wrong. Not only does this feature Lugosi in really the only other time he played Count Dracula since the original 1931 film, but it also has Lon Chaney Jr. returning as the cursed Larry Talbot, not to mention being a very well made, and creepy film. And is pretty damn funny too. Continue reading
Modern Horror Movies from the ’60s and ’70s
Self Published, 2019. 197 pages
By Laura Cremonini
Because I wanted to give this author a chance by looking at more than just one of her books, I purchased a second title, and I was happy to discover that it seems that this is actually original text and not lifted from any internet source. Or at least, not that I could find. What I did find though was something more interesting. It doesn’t seem she has improved on the formatting here, since some of the movie titles are in quotes and some are italicized. So on par with the previous book I reviewed, she is desperate need of a good editor.
The real strange part of this book is that she has decided to take on a particular slice of the horror genre, from the ’60s and ’70s, reviewing certain titles, which really is just stating the plot and then giving the reader’s a Catholic evaluation. What her affiliation with the Church is not known, so I’m assuming she is a devote follower that is giving us her interpretation of what the film means or represents to her. Sounds fair enough, since I’m always looking for different opinions on films.
Though… it doesn’t help when there are few errors or inconsistencies throughout the book. For example, she makes the comment that “Until 1962, horror movies produced by Hammer were directly exclusively by (Terence) Fisher.” Yes, while all of their major titles were directed by Fisher, there were more than a titles not directed by him, such as the first two Quatermass films by Val Guest, Taste of Fear by Seth Holt, The Shadow of the Cat by John Gilling, and a few more. Yes, this is just me being picky, but it does point out the lack of research to make such a claim. Continue reading
The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies opened up in 2010, offering classes in horror history, theory, and production, with branches in London, New York, and Los Angeles. But now they will be hosting some of their classes online so no matter where in the world you are, you can attend!
You can attend any of the classes, but make sure you check out the times, because they will be the times in the time zone where the location is. Meaning if you’re in New York and want to attend a UK one, you need to adjust your time to whatever time it is in London. Hope that makes sense!
But they have a wide range of topics that should be of interests to any horror fan. Some of a few topics are Spanish Horror Cinema: Industry, Political Trauma and the Gothic Imaginary, Symphony Macabre: Bernard Herrmann and the Scoring of Horror, or The Mask in Horror Cinema: Ritural, Power and Transformation.
Head over to the Miskatonic website HERE for all the details, class topics, and times.
It seems more and more of these drive-ins are holding events that keep tempting me to take more road trips! Once I hit the lotto, that is exactly what I’ll be doing, in between hitting on these old book stores!
Anyway, starting next Monday, the Starlite Drive-In, located in Wichita, KS, they will be having double and triple features each week through most of October, with some really choice titles. If there is anyway I could get down there to see Godzilla vs Megalon on the big screen, I would definitely be there. You can see all the features below on the ad, or you can head over to their Facebook Events page HERE. If you’re in the area and can make it, I will be very envious of you!
The Mahoning Drive-In continues to program some amazing lineups at their theater. Unfortunately for me, it is located on the far east side of Pennsylvania, which would be about a 11+ hour drive (one way) for me to attend. Otherwise, I would definitely be there for this. But for those of you that are closer, here’s the amazing lineup they have announced:
Friday, Sept. 25th:
Deep Red (1975)
The Psychic (1977)
Torso (1973)
Saturday, Sept. 26th:
House on the Edge of the Park (1980)
New York Ripper (1982)
Buio Omega (1979)
Sunday, Sept. 27th:
Beyond the Door (1974)
Beyond the Door II (1977)
If only I had hit the lotto and could just spend my days traveling from drive-in to drive-in….
For all the information about this event and the Mahoning Drive-In, just click HERE.
Welcome to our first Mystery Photo in September. That means Halloween is just a little bit closer. Then again, we all know that Halloween is every day, right! Okay, let’s get down to business. Last week’s photo was from the 1933 film Murders in the Zoo, starring the one and only Lionel Atwill. Such seedy and sadistic goings-on way back then. Congrats to the following for sending in the correct answer: Hoby Abernathy, Aaron Christensen, Dave Fronto, Troy Howarth, Dough Lamoreux, and Michael Shields. For those of you that haven’t seen this picture, I would highly recommend it.
For this week’s photo, we’re giving a shout out to all those hardworking people in the kitchens! It’s a bloody tough job! But take a look at the photo below and see if you can recognize which film it is from. As always, please do not post your guess here so that others can have a chance. Just send us your guess in an email, to jon@kitleyskrypt.com. Good Luck!
kitleyskrypt.com 