The Loreley’s Grasp (1974) Directed by Amando de Ossorio Starring Tony Kendall, Helga Liné, Silvia Tortosa, Josefina Jartin, Loreta Tovar, José Thelman, Luis Induni, Ángel Menéndez, Luis Barboo
Back in the early 80’s, I went to a midnight screening of some horror movie called When the Screaming Stopped. I had never even heard of it before, but they were passing out barf bags, so how could this not be an awesome movie! Years later, I would discover that this was the re-titling of a Spanish horror movie from Amando de Ossorio, the very man who gave us the Blind Dead series. But the feature at hand was actually Las garras de Lorelei, or The Loreley’s Grasp. Looking back, this was might have been my first introduction to Spanish horror, and probably the first time my eyes laid upon the beauty was is Helga Liné. But more on that later. Since they were passing out barf bags, the movie had to be gory, right? And at that time in my life, gore was what I was looking for. The film did deliver, on many levels. It would be years later before I truly appreciated it for what it is. And that, is one hell of a fun time.
Reynold Brown Born Oct. 18th, 1917 – Died Aug. 24th, 1991
You probably have never heard of the name Reynold Brown, which is a tragedy. This man’s work is recognized by millions of film fans, but sadly they don’t even realize who Brown was. In the years before the internet, if there is one job in the movie business that is probably responsible for getting to people to come to the movies, it was the artists creating the movie poster. This was what the future audience was going to look at and decide that they had to come back next week to see that movie, so the image had to jump out at them and draw them in immediately. And one of these guys responsible for that in the ’50s through the ’60s, was Reynold Brown.
Between 1951 and 1970, he created somewhere between 250 and 275 movie posters. And a LOT of them, I guarantee that you’ve seen before. Titles like Creature from the Black Lagoon, Revenge of the Creature, Tarantula, This Island Earth, I Was a Teenage Werewolf, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, or even The Deadly Mantis. Each one of these pieces truly is a work of incredible art. Not only just recreating a giant monster on the poster, but creating a story right there in one lookBeing left-handed, at a time when that wasn’t ‘normal’, his grammar school teachers forced him to write “properly” with his right hand. Of course, he still used his left hand to doodle and draw. And that he did. He continued to draw all through high school, even getting a scholarship for an art school, but couldn’t go because of the death of his father. But he still continued to work on his talent, eventually working on a comic strip called Tailspin Tommy. After the advice of one of his heroes, Norman Rockwell, he got a job as an illustrator at North American Aviation, doing technical illustrations for service manuals. He eventually worked as a freelance illustrated for years, eventually getting a teaching job as Art Center College, which he did for 26 years.
In 1951, he did his first movie poster, for the film The World in His Arms. Some of his posters are iconic and ones that we’ve been seeing for years. So Reynold Brown is a name that needs to be remembered for his work in this field, and for creating such incredible works of art, making us want to see those movies over and over again. The sad part is that there were times that Brown, and a lot of other movie poster artists, were not allowed to sign their names on the artwork. That is a real tragedy.
Check out the official website by clicking HERE. There was also a documentary on him made in 1994 called The Man Who Drew Bug-Eyed Monsters, which is available to watch on YouTube. Below is part one, then you should be able to see the links for the other three parts. It definitely is worth a watch.
There is something to be said about seeing the old Universal classic monster films on the big screen. As many times as we’ve seen them on our TVs, it still doesn’t have the same impact of seeing them projected on a huge screen, inside a theater with a bunch of like minded film fans. There really is something magical about it and is something that every fan of these wonderful films should have the chance to experience that way. Well, if you’re anywhere near Canton, Ohio in October, then you will have the chance to do just that.
While wandering through the dealer room on Saturday before the show opened, I came upon an art print that blew me away. It was a collage of all the different creatures/monsters that were created by low budget monster maker Paul Blaisdell, which even included a couple of images of Blaisdell himself. If you’re not familiar with highly underrated talent then you have some homework to do! He created a bunch of different creatures for the low budget AIP features back in the ’50s, with very little time and money. But he always came up with some interesting monsters and aliens, like we’ve never seen before. He worked on titles like It Conquered the World, Invasion of the Saucer Men, The She-Creature, and a few more. So to see him and his work highlighted in this beautiful piece of art made my heart swell. I can now proudly say that it is now framed and hanging in my office. The artist is Scott Jackson and has been doing this kind of work for quite some time. He had some other great prints for sale, including a stunning one from The Picture of Dorian Gray, with him standing in front of is decayed portrait. Definitely will be picking that one up from him in the future. You can check out his work at his site HERE.
El Vampiro (1957) Directed by Fernando Méndez Starring Abel Salazar, Ariadna Welter, Carmen Montejo, José Luis Jiménez, Mercedes Soler, Germán Robles
One of the things that I am always trying to promote here on the Krypt is to Discover the Horror, meaning always seeking out films that might be outside of your vision. Whether its older films or ones made in different parts of the world, you never know when you’re going to come across a great piece of cinema, no matter when and where it was made. And one of the reasons I’m always waving that flag is that I want people to learn from my mistakes. I wasn’t always like that, but would be happier to stay inside my little comfort zone. So many years ago, when I was a younger and dumber horror fan, I resisted any other horror sub-genre. My reasoning back then was that there was already too many of the regular titles that I hadn’t seen, so I didn’t want to add to that ever growing list. Thankfully a friend of mine, went against my wishes and sent me a few tapes with some of the Mexican horror movies from the 50’s, such as The Bloody Vampire and Curse of the Crying Woman. And after watching them, not only was I hooked, but I also started to see the errors of my way. Thanks Monster Mark! With so much great stuff out there, from all different countries, you really don’t want to limit yourself. You will miss a lot. Trust me.
This year’s Monster Bash, held once again in Mars, PA, was their 20th Anniversary show. I can’t express how sad I am that I had only started coming to this show a few years ago. For years, I put some serious thought into setting up as a vendor there, but I always talked myself out of it because of the distance being too far and if it would really be worth it. Now, with this show becoming one of my favorite stops on our Kryptic World Tour, I realize just how I wrong I was.
This time out, I would be making the 500 mile journey to the show on my own, since my wife Dawn is taking care of her father. It sucks having to do the show alone, but there are certain things in life that are way more important, and family is one of them. It’s only a couple of hours past where we go for Wasteland, so it should be that bad. Though, looking at the weather in the area for that Friday, it was calling for rain…all…day…long! I’ve never had to unload for a show in the rain and was not looking forward to it. I decided to leave after work on Thursday, drive to Cleveland area and then stop for a few hours of sleep, then drive the last couple of hours the next morning to be there by 8am for set up.
If you are even remotely close to the Manhattan area in NY this month, then you need to make sure you check out some, if not all of these Mario Bava films that are screening all month long in a tribute to this Italian cinematic master. Starting July 14th, the Quad Cinema will be screening more than two dozen of Bava’s titles, such as A Bay of Blood, 5 Dolls for an August Moon, Baron Blood, Black Sabbath, Black Sunday, Blood and Black Lace, Danger: Diabolik, Evil Eye, Lisa and the Devil, Kill, Baby…Kill!, Planet of the Vampires and more.
Welcome to Monday! Hopefully you are getting to enjoy this day as a holiday, like I am. If not…uh…sorry. But even though this is a holiday, I still made sure you had a new Mystery Photo today. This is a lot of work, you know! Okay…maybe not a LOT….
Our photo from last week was from the 2007 French film Frontier(s). Congrats to Dustin Moravich and Will Wilson for sending in the correct answer.
So let us get to this week’s photo. Might be an easy one for most of you out there, or at least the older fans. But this is a childhood favorite of mine, so if you don’t know it, then there is a clue for you. In either case, good luck. And as always, please don’t post your answers here, but send them to us in an email to jon@kitleyskrypt.com.
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) Directed Dario Argento Starring Tony Musante, Suzy Kendall, Enrico Maria Salemo, Eva Renzi, Umberto Raho, Renato Romano, Giuseppe Castellano
This is a very important title to Italian horror fans. It is, of course, the directorial debut of Dario Argento, and what would be the first film in his ‘animal trilogy’. It was this picture that would start Argento down his path as one of the most popular Italian directors, whose career has spanned more than five decades. Sure, some might frown upon some of Argento’s later films, even from the last couple of decades. But no matter how bad you might consider those films, that doesn’t change the fact that the titles in the early part of his career still are stunning classics and, more importantly, still effective today. As Troy Howarth points out in his commentary that is featured on this new disc from Arrow Video, “His reputation as one of the most influential and imaginative of genre filmmakers can never be taken away from him.” So there you go.
I really have a love/hate relationship with these kind of books. It’s a book on horror films, so of course I’m going to add it to the library. But when a book comes out with a title like this, it is always open for debate, since everyone’s opinions are going to be different, even if just a little bit. Maybe you can’t believe that they would have included a certain title in their Top Ten? Or maybe that they even left out a film that you think should have been included.
Back in the early 80’s, I went to a midnight screening of some horror movie called When the Screaming Stopped. I had never even heard of it before, but they were passing out barf bags, so how could this not be an awesome movie! Years later, I would discover that this was the re-titling of a Spanish horror movie from Amando de Ossorio, the very man who gave us the Blind Dead series. But the feature at hand was actually Las garras de Lorelei, or The Loreley’s Grasp. Looking back, this was might have been my first introduction to Spanish horror, and probably the first time my eyes laid upon the beauty was is Helga Liné. But more on that later. Since they were passing out barf bags, the movie had to be gory, right? And at that time in my life, gore was what I was looking for. The film did deliver, on many levels. It would be years later before I truly appreciated it for what it is. And that, is one hell of a fun time.
Reynold Brown
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