Color Comes Back to Langella’s Dracula

July 21, 2019 by Jon Kitley in Misc. Ramblings and tagged Dracula, Frank Langella, John Badham, Scream Factory | 1 Comment

frank-langella-dracula-1979

I can remember watching the 1979 version of Dracula on VHS, and loving the look, the feel, and the atmosphere of it, especially in its glorious color. But something happened when it was released to DVD for the first time. All of the color was bled out, making it almost look black and white. Here’s the little backstory to that. Originally, director John Badham wanted to film it in black and white but the studios said no way in hell. When it came to be released on DVD, Badham had control over the look of the film and had it modified to fit the version he originally wanted to make. Continue reading →

Master of Dark Shadows

March 7, 2019 by Jon Kitley in Misc. Ramblings and tagged Dan Curtis, Dark Shadows, David Gregory, Dracula, Master of Dark Shadows, Night Stalker, Norliss Tapes, Trilogy of Terror | Leave a comment

Master of Dark Shadows You couldn’t grow up watching TV in the ’70s and not know of the work of Dan Curtis. His work had a huge impact on my life, from The Night Stalker (1972), The Norliss Tapes (1973), Trilogy of Terror (1975), and so many other made-for-TV movies. Oh yeah, and there was that series Dark Shadow that you might have heard of. Needless to say, if it was from Curtis, you know it was going to be worth your time. And now, thanks to director David Gregory, we’re going to have a chance to learn a little bit more about this amazing man.

Set to be released next month, this feature length documentary covers Curtis and his work, hearing from a ton of people that worked with him and were fans of his work, such as Ben Cross, Roger Davis, Jonathan Frid, Whoopi Goldberg, John Karlen, William F. Nolan, David Selby, Barbara Steele, Kathryn Leigh Scott, Bob Cobert, and many more.

While he definitely worked outside the horror genre a few times, like writing, producing, and directing the Emmy Award Winning mini-series War and Remembrance (1988-89), he made such an impact with horror fans with his films. And they are still as entertaining now, decades later, as they were then. Kudos to Gregory for helping bring light to this talented man that was use to working in the shadows.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula 3-CD Special Edition

November 25, 2018 by Jon Kitley in Reviews: Soundtrack and tagged Bram Stoker's Dracula, Dracula, Francis Ford Coppola, La-La Land Records, Wojciech Kilar | 1 Comment

Bram Stoker's Dracula Lucy

This really must be the year for special edition soundtracks for Dracula films. Recently Varèse Sarabande had released a 2-CD special edition set of John Williams’ score for the 1979 version of Dracula, which we promptly pre-ordered the minute we heard that news since that has always been a favorite score of mine. And now, thanks to the fine folks at La-La Land Records, they will be releasing a 3-CD set for Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), giving us fans almost 3 1/2 hours of this incredible music from Wojciech Kilar.

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Horror History: Bob Cobert

November 14, 2018 by Jon Kitley in Horror History and tagged Bob Cobert, Dan Curtis, Dark Shadows, Dracula, Night Stalker, Norliss Tapes | 2 Comments

bobcobert Bob Cobert
Born Oct. 26th, 1924

If you were a fan of Dan Curtis and his early TV work, then you are well aware of the work of Bob Cobert, even if you don’t recognize the name. He is probably best known for working on the famous Curtis TV series Dark Shadows, that ran from 1967 to 1971. He also worked on the two feature films based on the series, House of Dark Shadows (1970) and Night of Dark Shadows (1971), as well as the 1991 revival. But he also did a ton of different made-for-TV shows in the early ’70s with Curtis. Titles like The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1968), The Night Stalker (1972), The Night Strangler (1973), The Norliss Tapes (1973), Scream of the Wolf (1974), Dracula (1974), Trilogy of Terror (1975), Burnt Offerings (1976), and so many more.

Working outside of the horror genre, he also composed the music for Curtis’ war epics The Winds of War (1983) and War and Remembrance (1988), as well creating his fair share of game show themes!

Cobert’s music had its own unique style that was recognizable, memorable, and always added to what we were watching on screen. Those films and shows would definitely had lost something without had it not been for his music.

Williams’ Dracula Special Edition Release

October 24, 2018 by Jon Kitley in Misc. Ramblings and tagged Dracula, Frank Langella, John Badham, John Williams, Varese Sarabande | Leave a comment

Dracula special edition

One of the very first film scores that hooked me was that of John Williams’ score for the 1979 version of Dracula, starring Frank Langella. It was also one of the first soundtrack LPs I bought back in the day, being every bummed that it just wasn’t that long of a score. But now all of that is going to change, thanks to Varèse Sarabande.

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Universal Horrors at the Music Box Theatre

August 17, 2018 by Jon Kitley in Movie Events and tagged Dracula, Face of Frankenstein, Frankenstein, Murders in the Rue Morgue, Music Box Theatre, Remy Bumppo Theatre, The Invisible Man, The Mummy, Universal Horrors, Universal Monsters | Leave a comment

Invisible Man

Because our September and October wasn’t filling up already, the Music Box has decided to screen some of the Universal classics in their Universal Horror: A Matinee Series, starting at 11:30am on each weekend listed below. Plus the fact that these are all being screened from 35mm prints! Now is your chance to see some of these essential titles from our horror history but on the big screen like they were meant to be seen! Here’s the schedule for this series:

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Horror History: Bernard Robinson

May 22, 2018 by Jon Kitley in Horror History and tagged Bernard Robinson, Dracula, Hammer Films, Hammer Horror, Horror of Dracula | Leave a comment

Bernard Robinson
Born July 28th, 1912 – Died Mar. 2nd, 1970

If you are a fan of Hammer Films, then you are a fan of Robinson’s work, even if you don’t realize it. Robinson was the art director and later production designer that worked on good number of their films, from Quatermass 2 (1957) to Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969). The first actual film that he worked on was as an art director on The Case of the Frightened Lady (1938). Over those early years, he became good friends with Tony Keys, who would later invite Robinson to come work for Hammer.

Robinson could not only create unbelievable sets out of very little money, he also designed sets that could be used over and over again but moving things around and a little re-dressing. In fact, he was a master of his. Director Terence Fisher had stated that with one of Robinson’s sets, he could point the camera anywhere and he knew it would look fantastic.

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Horror History: John L. Balderston

April 20, 2018 by Jon Kitley in Horror History and tagged Dracula, Frankenstein, John L. Balderston, Universal Monsters | Leave a comment

johnlbalderston John L. Balderston
Born Oct. 22nd, 1889 – Died Mar. 8th, 1954

Ever wonder why the original ’30s film versions of Dracula and Frankenstein didn’t seem to follow the novels too much? Well, one of the men responsible for that was writer John L. Balderston. He started his career as a journalist, even before he finished school, working for different newspapers. He would even be a war correspondent during WWI. He eventually started in show business as a playwright, while continuing the journalism gigs as well.

In 1927, he was hired to re-write Hamilton Deane’s stage play of Dracula for American audiences, making more than a few changes. Because of its huge success, he was then hired to do the same for Peggy Webling’s play version of Frankenstein. He would later have his name attached to many of the early monster classics, even if his scripts were never used. But because of his work, a lot of the foundation of these early monster flicks were due to him.

In 1953, Balderston and the heirs of Webling won a lawsuit with Universal, getting paid not only $20,000 but also 1% of any of the films that resulted from their work, including any sequels!

Book Review: Monster Movies of Universal Studios

July 29, 2017 by Jon Kitley in Reviews: Horror Reference Book and tagged Creature from the Black Lagoon, Dracula, Frankenstein, James L. Neibaur, Monster Movies of Universal Studios, The Invisible Man, The Mummy, The Wolf Man | Leave a comment

The Monster Movies of Universal Studios
By James L. Neibaur
Published by Rowman & Littlefield, 2017. 213 pages.

Anytime there is a book about the Universal monster movies, then count me in, since I’m always up for revisiting these classic films. Of course, the only problem is that since this subject has been written about just a few times before, it might be tough to come up with something new and different for readers to get information that have haven’t several times before. But overall, I think that Neibaur does a good job discussing these films.

After a very brief history of Universal Studios (which could be a book on it’s own), the it follows all the movies from there that feature their main set of monsters: Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy, the Wolf Man, the Invisible Man, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. So any film that featured one of these monsters, or possibly their descendent, the title is covered. There is a total of 29 features covered here, starting with 1931’s Dracula and ending with The Creature Walks Among Us (1956), with each chapter covering each of the titles. The credits and cast are listed, before Neibaur gets into details of each film, such as the plot, information about the people involved, and some other trivia as well.

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Book Review: Vampire Films of the 1970s

June 29, 2017 by Jon Kitley in Reviews: Horror Reference Book and tagged Blacula, Count Yorga, Dracula, Gary A. Smith, Hammer Films, McFarland, Santo, Vampire Films of the 1970s | Leave a comment

Vampire Films of the 1970s
By Gary A. Smith
Published by McFarland, 2017. 240 pages.

Being the ’70s is the decade I grew up in, watching more than my share of flicks on TV, I’m always up for reading more about this wonderful decade and the movies that came out. Decades before zombies would finally take over, at this particular point in time, vampires still ruled both in theaters and television. This is more than proven with the amount of titles covered here by Smith.

The book starts with a brief overview of the sub-genre, some rules of vampires, then we jump right into the Hammer Film era, where he first gives a little history about the famous British studio before jumping to their ’70s Dracula flicks, then moving on to other fang flicks. Since Hammer made quite a few of them during the ’70s, they are all covered here, lumped together in different sub-categories. There are other groups in the book, like Asian vampires, the Mexican Santo movies, even one on vampire porn! So there are plenty of titles to seek out if you are relatively new to the vampire genre, or are always looking ones you have missed.

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