Tag: Vincent Price

ISSUE 1: THE MONSTER TIMES TELETYPE

…is our way of getting the latest hot-off-the-wire info to you; reviews, previews, scoops on horror films in production, newsworthy monster curiosities, bulletins, and other grues-flashes. There are several contributors to our hodge-podge Teletype page … BILL FERET, our man in Show Biz (he’s a professional actor, singer, dancer with the impressive resume list of stage, film and TV credits to his name), makes use of his vast professional experiences and leads to Feret-out items of interest to monster fans, and duly report on them in his flashing Walter-Wind-chill manner.

LEAPING LIZARDS! … or rather: “ambling amphibians?” frogs are upon us!

AIP is at present shooting “FROGS” in Florida. This is about an EEEEEk-ological monster. Starred are Ray Milland and Judy Pace. While the previously announced “LIVING DEAD” has been retitled “THE FROG.” George Sanders and Beryl Reid are in this one which concerns motorcyclists and occultism. Potential new titles: “My Heart Went Leaping”, “Hell’s Reptiles on Wheels?” or “Hell’s Angels Get Warts!” (?)

Keep thine eyes glued to your TV set for KING KONG to endorse Volkswagon.

There seems to be a fetish for Monsters in Advertising. Binaca Mouth Spray is the most noticeable. There are hordes of others. Looks like monsters sell. Reminds us of comedian Stan Freberg’s album-fable entitled “Grey-Flannel Hat-full of Teenaged Werewolves” the heart-wrenchingly sad tale of a normal, well-adjusted werewolf who by day (Horrors!) turns (shudder!) uncontrollably into (ye gods!) an Advertising Man.

..; Look for: “THE LIVING DEAD” with George Sanders, “THE BEAST IN THE CELLAR,” “A TOUCH OF MELISSA,” “CAULDRON OF BLOOD,” “CRUCIBLE OF HORROR,” (How ’bout a Glass of Gore” or “Thermos-jug of Terror”? “Decanter of Doom?) and a new George Pal production “DIE THE YOUNG.”

AIP’s also giving us “GODZILLA VS. THE SMOG MONSTER“. This one’s a real one; kiddies! No Kidding! The said monster lives on pollution. Wish we had a few of those monsters in real life. The title song has to be “Smog gets in your eyes.”

Up and coming is “THE RESURRECTION OF ZACHARY WHEELER.” A really top-notch science-fiction/medical opus, it’s somewhat the same rip-off as “THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN.” Tight and crisp direction by Robert Wynn lends authenticity to the portrayal of Leslie Nielsen, Bradford Dillman, James Daly, and Angie Dickinson. The pic was filmed in a new process of tape-to-film and seems to have been a rather successful experiment. With the desolate setting of the New Mexican desert, Hithcockian intrigue and the sci-fi plot, this is sure to be a hair-raiser, or at least a Zachair-raiser.

Follow the bouncing eyeballs to the re-issue of “HOUSE OF WAX,” in the original 3-D process. This time around, Charles Bronson, then an unknown, gets billing above, the then-star, Phyllis Kirk.

Veteran villain Vincent Price, is doing an encore of “THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES,” and there’s to be a sequel to “WILLARD” called … natch … “BEN,” starring Joseph Campanella. Sequels usually need something to bolster them up … a song, perhaps? (“… the way you wear your rat…”)

Russ Meyer plans a change of pace from his usual sexpot-boilers with a thriller called “THE ELEVEN.” He’s been scouting for an Austrian-type castle setting … in Macon, Georgia? “Well shut my moat!”

Ken Russell‘s “THE DEVILS” is a superb film about Church-run witch-hunts, possession, and persecution … but it’s a gory little number. Bring your stomach liners, it’s worth it…

Public TV is planning a special titled “BETWEEN TIME AND TIMBUKTU,” described as an “existentialist space satire,” based on several Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.. works, including “Cat’s Cradle,” “Player Piano,” and “Welcome to the Monkey House.” Bob and Ray will be among the performers. Bob and Ray are the funniest comedy duo radio was ever graced with.

OUTER SPACE: Oh, boy. Lovers of the dreadful have an object for worship in this item. Now, we’ve seen evil-smelly-awful invaders bent on – ominous bass chord – Ruling The World zapped by seawater, volcanoes, bacteria, rockets, artillery, fission, fusion, fire, electricity, chemicals, earthquakes, other invaders and natural mutation, to cite a few improbabilities. Yog, you will be pleased to hear, is done in by sonic waves from bats. Yep, this incredibly malevolent, supremely cunning baddie is cheep-cheep cheeped to death. And that’s the best part…

Acting honors go to the bats.

And … are … you ready? … A new country and Western album just released by “Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen” entitled “LOST IN THE OZONE” (I believe that was the first chapter title in the film serial.) Some of the numbers on the platter must be “O-Zone River,” “The Wizard of Oze,” and “Nobody Oze the Trouble I Seen.”

B.F

ISSUE 1: THE GHOULS, A BOOK REVIEW

by LARRY TODD

THE GHOULS

edited by Peter Haining with an introduction by Vincent Price and an afterword by Christopher Lee $7.95

Peter Haining’s THE GHOULS is an anthology of nineteen stories which have found their way (in some form or another), to the screen as horror films. That is, some of them are horror films, others are monster flicks. Editor Haining has produced several other anthologies, including a competent one on vampyres; THE MIDNIGHT PEOPLE.

THE GHOULS is published by Stein and Day, for the truly blood-curdling sum of $7.95. Its other attributes, (apart from the impressive price tag); a garish cover done in early Grand Guignol and ziptone, with hints of decadence and bad taste, (the inside cover is even worse; its in Day glo Christmas colors with a reproduction of Christopher Lee yawning) an introduction by Vincent Price, an editor’s forward, an afterword by Christopher Lee, and stills from the films.

The stories are by Ambrose Bierce, Edgar Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Bram Stoker, Nikolai Gogol, and Robert Louis Stevenson to name a random few. Literary excellence, and the role these stories have played in the history of the horror film are Mr. Haining’s chief considerations.

The stories are, on the whole, excellent. Some, such as Tod Robbin‘s SPURS and Gaston Leroux‘s THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, have inspired, respectively, the cine-masterpieces FREAKS, and the immortal Chaney film. Others, Poe’s THE OBLONG BOX, for example, have been butchered and transformed beyond recognition. As Boris Karloff once remarked during an interview “Poor Poe, the things we did to him when he wasn’t around to defend himself.”

The best story is W.F. Harvey‘s grisly THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS; a classic which has been anthologized since the Flood, and is perhaps one of the most frightening stories of all time. Also good are Poe’s THE SYSTEM OF DOCTOR TARR AND PROFESSOR FETHER, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s FEATHERTOP. and Nicolai Gogol’s THE VIY.

Harvey’s BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS concerns a man relentlessly persecuted by (and finally murdered by) his dead uncle’s possessed hand. A beautifully crafted piece of work, from its subtle beginning to its climactic ending, it was, unfortunately, made into an undistinguished film in 1947. That it survives at all, despite its typical 1940’s gimmick ending, is due entirely to the acting ability of the late Peter Lorre. And the pauperdom of Warner Brothers TV department.

THE SYSTEM OF DR. TARR AND PROFESSOR FETHER deals with the strange doings in a lunatic asylum when the patients take over. It’s by Poe. Need I say more? The critic who remarked-“One does not go to Poe for humor.” can eat his words. It may be black humor, but it is definitely humor. The film, under the title THE LUNATICS, was produced in 1912 by the Edison company; which also produced the lost FRANKENSTEIN of 1910.

FEATHERTOP is about a scarecrow who through the whim of a New England witch, becomes alive. Gogol’s THE VIY, a story of vampirism and witchcraft in Russia, was turned into an excellent film by Mario Bava. Bava had been a cameraman before becoming a director, and his visual sense of values and ability to use his actors (Barbara Steele and John Richardson in this case), were what made BLACK SUNDAY a superior film.

Now for the bad news folk. Included in the anthology are Gaston Leroux’s PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, Tod Robbin’s SPURS, and Francis Oscar Mann’s THE DEVIL IN A CONVENT.

The PHANTOM OF THE OPERA is quite a good novel in the original French. This translation is terrible. To judge Gaston Leroux by this mess is comparable to judging Chaney’s performance by the rotten Hammer remake. I’ve read the original, complete, French version. I know. (I’ve also seen the rotten Hammer remake.)

I was disappointed in Tod Robbin’s SPURS. I expected the story that inspired Tod (Dracula) Browning’s magnum opus, the incomparable FREAKS, to be made of sterner stuff. Well. That is life. THE DEVIL IN A CONVENT is a bore. It may have inspired the first horror film of all time, but it is a mushy Pre-Raphaelite-like bore. Enough. If you’re curious about what exactly a Pre-Raphaelite-like bore is, read it.

Now: the question that is doubtless foremost in your hearts as you sit, perched on your chairs breathlessly perusing this review. Do I recommend the book? After all, $7.95 is a lot of bubble gum in these depression days. And is it worth it?

Yes.

Jessica Clerk

EDITOR’S NOTE: Jessica Clerk is The Monster Times’ Staffe Vampyr Expert, 17 years old, and claims to carry a torch for Chris Lee. We plan to ship our precocious li’l tyke to England to interview England’s No. 1 vampire in a forthcoming ish of M.T.

Peeleth thine eyes!