From out of the pulsating pages of the late, great EC horror comix comes a horrific new movie.
“TALES FROM THE CRYPT”
Yep, gang! You remember all those great EC comix of the early 1950’s that have been reprinted as paperbacks and even now in hard-cover book form (HORROR COMICS OF THE 1950’S)! Well, now five of those great old tales of murder and mutilation and corpses rising from the grave and demon-haunted catacombs and obstacle courses of walls covered with sharp, new, glistening razor blades, and-all-like-that-there! .. have been turned into a feature-length film, starring some biggies in both the horror and the “respectable” acting fields.
Sir Ralph Richardson, of all the “respectable” people you’d least expect to see, plays the Crypt-keeper. Not so much the pungently-punning black-humorist Crypt-keeper who obnoxiously enhanced the pages of the EC comix, but a somber, moody, satanic figure in a monk’s robe, broodingly holding inquisition of souls as he sits before a huge skull-shaped altar. But Sir Ralph isn’t really so “respectable” – the first film he appeared in was a 1932 shocker, THE GHOUL.
The Crypt-keeper introduces the tales, by questioning each of the main participants in the stories. Then we flash back to each character’s particular doings (mainly evil), and we see how “the evil that men do not only “lives after them” but often even chases after them from the other side of the grave (or Crypt). And among the horrified living and vengeful undead hunters are “respectable” newcomers to horror Joan Collins (Mrs. Anthony Newley), Patrick Magee (currently making waves in CLOCKWORK ORANGE and KING LEAR), who puts in a remarkable performance as a blind man (one wonders if Mr. Magee could do a bad acting job if he TRIED) and Richard Greene, who used to only buckle swashes in TV’s ROBIN HOOD.
But even great old horror veteran Peter Cushing does a turn-around in roles. Instead of either the classic monster, leering mad doctor, or the stuffy vampire-stalking police inspector, he plays instead a sympathetic, aging and kind-hearted garbage collector who repairs thrown-away toys and gives them to young children. Bet you weren’t ready for that! But rest assured, before his segment is over, he takes on a more horrifying demeanor, as his photo reveals.
TALES FROM THE CRYPT is due for a “World Screamiere” on March 7th in New York City (the theater hasn’t been announced at press time), but the producers heartily advise all potential audiences to put themselves into a fine mood for the occasion by “Shrieking their way into the theater,” and that “A scream will get them passes into the house”.
By the way, if you’re really interested in seeing what the original EC comix stories that are adapted were, getteth thyself to the Society of Illustrators Building at 128 East 63rd Street in Manhattan, and drag your eyeballs across the exhibit which begins there on March 6th; they’re showing the original comic book art (monster-sized stuff, each page the better part of a yard high!) of the five stories adapted in TALES FROM THE CRYPT.
But more news for old EC comix fans, the stories from TALES FROM THE CRYPT, which have already seen comic, and paperback-reprint form, have come to book form; a novelization treatment of the stories! So comix have evolved to prose. It’s been shown in various studies (studies which weren’t publicized until long after Senator Estes Kefauver and Frederick Wertham and the hypocritical Comics Code Authority had successfully ram-rodded the EC horror and science fiction comics out of business) that the ghouls and murderers and undead and bug-eyed-monsters in the EC stories actually encouraged kids back in the 1950’s to develop their reading skills, and to discover the many fantastic universes of wonder and horror to be found in prose stories. It’s really ironic that the very comix which certain government officials and rival publishing companies conspired against to put out of business, should have this double tribute, yea, honor! of both film and prose adaptation. Those who learned to appreciate prose, reading EC comix, can come full circle, reading EC prose.
The EC comix frequently ran stories of the dead having their final justice, a horrifying vengeance, often a return from the crypt or tomb or burial plot to have the last Ghastly laugh. And Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein (who now put out MAD) can revel in the final gloating glory … giggling all the way to the bank. For it seems that TALES FROM THE CRYPT will be a horrific hit.
Let’s face it; no one’s ever going to make a successful movie about the Comics Code Authority – let alone about the late Senator Estes Kefauver (who him?)