The GMG SF/Fantasy/Horror Club

[mc ukrneal]

I think the best done, and I mean this sincerely, was Abbott and Costello Meets Frankenstein. 

Anyone who has something good to say about Abbot and Costello gets a gold star in my book!

[snyprrr]

Yes, yes, yes!  I refer to it as their "charm".

Been a while....I will have to watch it again.

I also have a soft spot for 'House of Dracula', one of the least seen. Ahhh,... I better check my blood sugar...

That list sure cracks open the memory lid, aye aye aye...

All those 'mad doctor' movie,... 'The Man from Half-Lit Park', haha,... 'Doctor Madness',... oy, I know, just made up titles, but still,...


I remember crying at the end of 'The Wolfman' ,... sympathetic villain and all ,... sniff sniff

Which brings up Paul Naschy. Anyone? I'd love to see the 70mm version of 'Frankenstein's Bloody Terror',... some of the still pop out like 3D. I don't care HOW bad a movie is if it's in Eastman color and 70mm!!

[Bogey]

I love your current avatar Bogey. Lugosi's 1931 Dracula has been one of my all time favorite films. I have seen this film about 50 times and I have it now on dvd so I can watch it anytime.

I was able to see this film in all of its glory back in the early 1970s at the Universal Studios Ampitheatrer. They were running the good old Universal Studio Monster films which included Lugosi's Dracula, Karloff's Frankenstein and Chaney's The Wolf Man. I really love those great Universal Studio Monsters.    

Didn't you have some connection to or meet Forry Ackerman?  How cool to see something like that, especially in the 70's when they were tough to catch I bet.

Anyone who has something good to say about Abbot and Costello gets a gold star in my book!

I'll wear it with pride! 

I also have a soft spot for 'House of Dracula', one of the least seen. Ahhh,... I better check my blood sugar...

Always enjoyed the Glenn Strange monster....I believe most toys and such carried his image and not Karloff's.

[Bogey]

Here is another cool list compiled by Mike Scott, but non-Universal.  The list was made in 2009, so do not know whether it is up to date on the dvd release:

Here's another list of '30s and '40s horror (and some mystery/thriller) films released by the major studios. As you can see, there are several classics yet to be released on DVD.

* not available on DVD

WB

Outward Bound (1930)*
Svengali (1931)*
Mad Genius, The (1931)*
Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)
Doctor X (1933)
Walking Dead, The (1936)*
Return of Doctor X, The (1939)

Body Disappears, The (1941)*
Hidden Hand, The (1942)*
Between Two Worlds (1944)*
Beast with Five Fingers, The (1946)*


MGM

The Unholy Three (1930)*
Freaks (1932)
Mask of Fu Manchu, The (1932)
Mad Love (1935)
Mark of the Vampire (1935)
Devil-Doll, The (1936)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)
Picture of Dorian Gray, The (1945)


PARAMOUNT

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)
Island of Lost Souls (1932)*
Supernatural (1933)*
Murders in the Zoo (1933)*
Cat and the Canary, The (1939)*

Ghost Breakers, The (1940)
Dr. Cyclops (1940)
Among the Living (1941)*
Mad Doctor, The (1941)*
Monster and the Girl, The (1941)*
Uninvited, The (1944)*
Man in Half Moon Street, The (1945)*


20TH CENTURY FOX:

Chandu the Magician (1932)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)

Dr. Renault's Secret (1942)
The Undying Monster (1942)
The Lodger (1944)
Hangover Square (1945)
Shock (1946)


RKO:

The Most Dangerous Game (1932)
The Phantom of Crestwood (1932)*
The Monkey's Paw (1933)*
King Kong (1933)
The Son of Kong (1933)
She (1935)
Seven Keys to Baldpate (1935)*
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)

Cat People (1942)
I Walked with a Zombie (1943)
The Leopard Man (1943)
The Seventh Victim (1943)
The Ghost Ship (1943)
The Curse of the Cat People (1944)
The Body Snatcher (1945)
Isle of the Dead (1945)
Bedlam (1946)

[eyeresist]

^ A couple of interesting and scarily comprehensive lists!

Well, I'm not sure about including the Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movies on the list.  Some of them are bad, but not scary bad... 

My favorite is probably still the original Dracula with Lugosi.  It's very creepy, heightened by the fact that the director came from doing silent films, and thus had no issues with leaving significant stretches of the film without sound -- no music, no dialogue, nothing but your imagination to keep you company, like sitting alone at night in a dark strange house.  I can't stand the attempts on DVD to add new music to it -- ruins the whole effect IMO.

There was always a Gothic horror edge to Holmes, even in the original stories. Some of the films are more overtly horror than others: Hound of the Baskervilles is obviously a kind of ghost story (prosaic explanation not withstanding). Most of the others contained substantial creepiness (I won't list them because I can't keep all the plots straight in my head). I watched the Woman in Green recently - that's about a series of women killed at random and their little fingers cut off. Is that not horror?
In the box set, the commentator seems to think the Scarlet Claw is the best of the Rathbones Holmeses, but I think it's the worst. Terror by Night is probably my favourite (the first one I saw).

I agree about Dracula -  the slowness and stillness make some younger viewers react against it, but the resultant atmosphere is uniquely horrifying. (The first Mummy film has a similar quality.) I'm annoyed at the hype the Spanish version has received. A more active camera isn't necessarily "better" than the Browning version, and most of the acting is substantially worse.
But while I like and respect Dracula, I'm more likely to watch House of Frankenstein - or House of Dracula (Skelton Knaggs!).

The Black Cat - I'm amazed this has never been remade. I guess the story's reliance on dialog over action is a stumbling block. But what dialog! "Have you ever seen an animal skinned alive? That's what I'm going to do to you!". A great shame it's an orphan film and thus will never get a decent restoration.

@Bogey, Island of Lost Souls came out on DVD this year.

(BTW, Lewton's film The Ghost Ship is actually a psychodrama about a power-mad ship's captain, not really a horror film.)

[eyeresist]

Here's a survey of the 40s monster rally films, from my blog. All criticisms gratefully received. Sorry I don't share your opinion of Frankenstein meets the Wolf Man, Bogey!

http://eyeresist.wordpress.com/the-universal-monster-mash-movies-of-the-1940s/

[Hollywood]

Didn't you have some connection to or meet Forry Ackerman?  How cool to see something like that, especially in the 70's when they were tough to catch I bet.

Yes I had the great pleasure of meeting Forry through the Count Dracula Society in Los Angeles. I was a member of the C.D.S. from 1970 -1978 and got to talk to him at one of the Annual Anne Radcliff Award dinner. He was such a lovely man and when he heard about my love of horror as well as my best friends love for sci-fi, he invited us to his home in Los Feliz to see his vast horror/sci-fi collections. I will never forget this visit or this wonderful man.

[jwinter]

There was always a Gothic horror edge to Holmes, even in the original stories. Some of the films are more overtly horror than others: Hound of the Baskervilles is obviously a kind of ghost story (prosaic explanation not withstanding). Most of the others contained substantial creepiness (I won't list them because I can't keep all the plots straight in my head). I watched the Woman in Green recently - that's about a series of women killed at random and their little fingers cut off. Is that not horror?...

Yes, I agree there's certainly a gothic touch to many of the Holmes stories, and the Rathbone movies tend to accentuate that.  The Woman in Green gets it's inspiration, I suppose, from The Cardboard Box, where Holmes' client receives a severed ear through the mail.  Though I wouldn't go so far as to call them horror movies (with the possible exception of BASK) -- the macabre is an element in the mix, but it's not the main focus, if you know what I mean. 

I guess I was reading the original list as being just of Universal Monster/Horror movies, so the Holmes movies sort of stuck out -- if we're casting a wider net to include thrillers and movies of the period with supernatural or macabre components to them, then certainly many of the Holmes movies should be on it.

[Ataraxia]

If you own an e-reader, I found three volumes with 101 "weird" stories each of the good old stuff. Here's the Amazon link to the first volume. Plenty of value here!
[asin]B00866VNVK[/asin]

[jwinter]

Looks good!  Alas they don't seem to have it at Barnes & Noble; I'll have to check around and see if I can find it in epub somewhere...

[Ataraxia]

Looks good!  Alas they don't seem to have it at Barnes & Noble; I'll have to check around and see if I can find it in epub somewhere...

Oh, sorry. I only checked Amazon.

[jwinter]

No worries.  Nice Neal Adams Conan pic, BTW

[Ataraxia]

No worries.  Nice Neal Adams Conan pic, BTW

Thanks. Adams was my Tarzan artist on those old paperbacks.

[jwinter]

 Quote from: MN Dave on Today at 09:04:05 AM

Thanks. Adams was my Tarzan artist on those old paperbacks.

 
Ah, yes, the haircut's not quite right for Conan, now that you mention it.  Hard to tell with just a loincloth and a PO'd ape.   

[Ataraxia]

Quote from: MN Dave on Today at 09:04:05 AM

Thanks. Adams was my Tarzan artist on those old paperbacks.

 
Ah, yes, the haircut's not quite right for Conan, now that you mention it.  Hard to tell with just a loincloth and a PO'd ape.   

Tarzan would whip Conan's ass, so say I and very few other people. I love both characters though.

[jwinter]

Hand-to-hand I wouldn't place a wager either way.  Conan would bring a lot more hardware, though -- swords, daggers, axes, maces, crossbows, whatever was handy and would fit on the poor horse....

[Ataraxia]

Hand-to-hand I wouldn't place a wager either way.  Conan would bring a lot more hardware, though -- swords, daggers, axes, maces, crossbows, whatever was handy and would fit on the poor horse....

No hardware. Just loincloths.

[snyprrr]

Yes I had the great pleasure of meeting Forry through the Count Dracula Society in Los Angeles. I was a member of the C.D.S. from 1970 -1978 and got to talk to him at one of the Annual Anne Radcliff Award dinner. He was such a lovely man and when he heard about my love of horror as well as my best friends love for sci-fi, he invited us to his home in Los Feliz to see his vast horror/sci-fi collections. I will never forget this visit or this wonderful man.

I met FJA at a convention, sitting next to him at a screaming, screening of 'Dracula vs. Frankenstein',... you know, the one where Dracula has a jewfro! Zandor Vorkov as Dracula, oh that is some rich stuff. Al Adamson was the man there, haha!

GUILTY PLEASURE: 'Blood of Dracula's Castle' with John Carradine and others,...


This Thread is starting to pick up!

[jwinter]

Wow, I think one of the above was my 1,000th post.  Not many people can say they hit 1,000 on a classical music forum discussing a Tarzan/Conan fight.   

[Ataraxia]

Wow, I think one of the above was my 1,000th post.  Not many people can say they hit 1,000 on a classical music forum discussing a Tarzan/Conan fight.   

You're welcome.