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Post by Rob Allen on May 21, 2014 19:12:21 GMT -5
Did anyone catch TCM the past couple of nights? They were celebrating the films produced Brookfilms Productions, Mel Brooks' company? It was great. May 19: Fatso There's a small comics connection there - not to the movie, but the nickname "Fatso". It was relatively unknown until it was popularized by a comic strip character. Fat people were called "Fatty" or "Fats" earlier, but they weren't called "Fatso" until the strip Just Kids by Ad Carter introduced Fatso Dolan. The strip started in 1915, moved to King Features in 1923, and ran until 1956 with a name change in later years. Samples: comicskingdom.com/blog/2013/04/17/ask-the-archivist-a-serving-of-mush |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 22, 2014 2:25:13 GMT -5
Acquanetta wound up marrying an Arizona car dealer in the 50s and together they filmed many car commercials.If you bought a car you'd get a signed Acquanetta photograph.esidents of Arizona fondly remember these commercials that blanketed the late-night stations as being cheesy and weirdly funny.Alas I've searched YouTube and can't find any
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 22, 2014 9:29:46 GMT -5
INNER SANCTUM MYSTERY
Pillow Of Death (1945)
Lon Chaney Jr,Brenda Joyce,J.Edward Bromberg,Rosalind Ivan,Clara Blandick,Wilton Graf,Bernard Thomas
D-Wallace Fox
Attorney Wayne Fletcher (Chaney) and his secretary (Joyce) are having an affair, so when Wayne's wife is found smothered to death, he becomes the prime suspect. As the police investigate the murder, a psychic with questionable motives (Bromberg) tries to contact the deceased woman. Soon, Wayne begins seeing visions of his dead wife, and other people involved with the case begin to be killed, one by one. The final Inner Sanctum Mystery. Mr. Bottlehead must have already read the writing on the wall because he's missing from the film,probably out auditioning.Strange,but Chaney is only loved by one woman here,the other women actually hate him.Word must have been out about the series finale and we know how fickle Hollywood starlets can be. And no Chaney inner monolugues.Instead his dead wife is whispering to him to follow her voice. All the Sanctum conventions seem to be turned inside out for this movie.Especially the ending.I love the ending This movie comes closest to horror,but its still basically a murder mystery.Mostly taking place in an old mansion,with creaking doors that open by themselves,strange voices coming from the attic and a visiting spitualist named Julian Julian who conducts seances.There's hidden passageways in the mansion and an obsessive next-door neighbor who plays peeping tom. I waited patiently for the Pillow of Death.Was it fluffy?Was it square?Did it reside in a case or was it a throw pillow? As the film reached its conclusion I was cursing that this was another Frozen Ghost hoax.But then it made its entrance.The orchestra blared a crescendo.The Pillow of Death was here. I already told you I love the ending I enjoyed these 6 Inner Sanctum tales.Short,varied and did not leave me with a hangover like the Chan series did.Universal had cast many beautiful starlets for these flicks and I'm sure Chaney was in 7th heaven.But his role here as leading man didn't seem to pan out commercially and soon he would be relegated to character actor or cheaper B movie horror roles. Pillow of Death gets 7 stars from me,the series as well   
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 23, 2014 7:04:43 GMT -5
The Testament of Dr.Mabuse (1933)
Rudolf Klein-Rogge,Otto Wernicke D-Fritz Lang
Pulp magazine supervillians. Fu Manchu comes immediately in mind. Fantomas was also very popular.I've just watched for the first time a most fascinating fiend by the name of Dr.Mabuse.Some background first.Author Norbert Jacques first created the character in a serialized story in a European pulp magazine in 1921 called Dr.Mabuse,Der Spieler (Dr.Mabuse,The Gambler).Quickly,famed director Fritz Lang (Metropolis,M,The Big Heat)bought the rights and released the 1922 silent film at the same time a hardcover novel collecting the serial appeared.The movie was 4 hours long and broken into 2 parts (similar to Kill Bill) and was a huge success.Dr.Mabuse is a master of disguise and can hypnotically control people.He runs a criminal organization,devises masterplans and sends his henchmen out to execute them.These henchmen may be criminals,blackmail victims or innocents that are hynotically controlled.He is an anarchist seeking the complete destruction of society.I have not seen the silent film but it ends with Dr.Mabuse captured,seemingly gone mad and imprisoned in an insane asylum 11 years later Fritz Lang decides to do a sequel now with sound.Norbert Jacques had planned a sequel in novel form and had it halfway finished but Lang bought out the character totally and the novel died stillborn.Filming began and was completed just as the Nazi party took over Germany.The 124 minute film was previewed by Joseph Goebbels who banned it.Shortly after Lang fled Germany to France and then to the US.A French version was filmed simultaneously as the German (same sets and a few different actors.30 minutes shorter).This was the version originally seen in most of Europe.The Criterion edition restores the German version at 121 minutes. There are basically 3 plotlines to The Testament of Dr. Mabuse. The Dr himself is still in the insane asylum for years in a catatonic state.Then his hands begin to move as if it was writing.Soon paper and pen are put in front of him.At first only nonsense is written but as the years progress coherent sentences are produced.Soon its page after page of intricate plans of spectacular crimes-robberies,counterfeiting,sabotage,poisonings,assassinations,drug dealing.The head doctor of the asylum is under Mabuse's control and is dispensing these plans to various underlings Plot 2 tells the story of Tom who is out of work.He is recruited into Mabuse's gang and helps commit the crimes. He only balks when it comes to actual murder.Tom's girlfriend convinces him to quit the gang but they are both captured by Mabuse's henchmen before they can leave the city.They are brought into a room to face judgement.Behind a curtain,the voice of Mabuse tells them they are sentenced to death.They will never leave the room and will be blown up in 3 hours.Tom draws the curtain only to reveal a loudspeaker and a ticking clock.The death-trap and Tom's method of escape would make Batman proud Plot 3 revolves around Commisioner Lohmann trying to solve the rash of crimes in the city.He finally learns about Dr Mabuse and rushes to the asylum to confront him.There he finds the aged Dr.has just been pronounced dead and witnesses the corpse.Unbeknownst to the Commisioner,Dr.Mabuse has the power to mentally exchange his mind into a new body and now resides in the person of the asylum's head doctor.The mind exchange scene is spectacularly frightful.Oh,did I mention that Commissioner Lohmann is the same character and actor who appeared in Lang's classic M. This film gets a solid 9 and 1/2 of 10.Just some small dated,creaky scenes in the early stages but the film gets rolling like a fright train as it reaches its conclusion.Many great visual tricks as you would expect from the director of Metropolis.Has Dr.Mabuse every appeared in a comic,European or American? Any superhero comic fan should certainly catch this.The Testament of Dr.Mabuse is a masterpiece I have 3 other Dr.Mabuse movies from the 1960s to check out-The Return Of..,The Invisible... and The Death Ray Mirror of... Gert (Goldfinger)Frobe stars in the first.    I
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Post by Jesse on May 23, 2014 7:20:57 GMT -5
Loving all these Lon Chaney Jr movies a lot of which I haven't watched yet. One of my favorites from him was Spider Baby (1968). Chaney plays caretaker of orphaned siblings who suffer from a genetic syndrome which causes them to regress mentally and physically until they eventually turn into mindless cannibals. The actresses who play the girls are absolutely creepy. It's also the first appearance of horror alum Sid Haig who plays the oldest sibling.  You can watch the whole film on youtube. |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 23, 2014 7:37:42 GMT -5
Spider Baby is wonderful.Don't forget the fabulous Mantan Moreland is in it as well
Back to Dr. Mabuse for a moment. I'm sure Jerry Siegel saw it and inspired him when he came up with the Ultra-Humanite for Superman
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Post by Jesse on May 23, 2014 7:47:56 GMT -5
I haven't watch the Gambler but Testament is an incredible film. I caught it on TCM for the first time not long ago and was completely blown away. The opening scene is phenomenal and it never lets up. Spider Baby is wonderful.Don't forget the fabulous Mantan Moreland is in it as well Mantan is great. Revenge of the Zombies is one of my favorites from him. I forget where I was reading it but there was an article about how Abbott and Costello took a lot of what they did in horror movies from him. |
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Post by Jasoomian on May 23, 2014 11:19:25 GMT -5
Mabuse is in the latest LXG hardback -- Nemo: The Roses of Berlin.
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Post by Hoosier X on May 23, 2014 11:29:11 GMT -5
The actor who plays Tom in the German version of "The Testament of Dr. Mabuse" is Gustav Diessl, who played Jack the Ripper in "Pandora's Box" with Louise Brooks.
He was also in "The White Hell of Pitz Palu" with Leni Riefenstahl. "Pitz Palu" is mentioned in "Inglourious Basterds."
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 23, 2014 11:48:00 GMT -5
Thanks Hoosier and Jasoomian for those Mabuse references.Its good to know after watching movies for so many years you can come across something for the first time,get blown away,and wonder how you missed it for so long.Especially weird in that I've seen so many other Lang films and have had this DVD sitting on my shelf for years undisturbed.Makes me more determined than ever to dust off all these movies I've accumulated-especially the Criterions
Speaking of Criterion,this is a really packed release.Its a double DVD.The second disc has the shorter French version, a 20 minute interview with Lang from 1964,a 10 minute bio of Mabuse's author Norbert Jacques, a 20 minute comparasion between the German,French and American versions,an interview with actor Rudolf Schundler who played Hardy,production designs,press books,stills and posters plus a printed insert critique
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Post by MDG on May 23, 2014 11:58:38 GMT -5
Spider Baby is wonderful.Don't forget the fabulous Mantan Moreland is in it as well It's probably the best of Lon Chaney's late-career performances. Director Jack Hill said that Lon promised not to drink during shooting. The actresses who play the girls are great in it, as is Carol Ohmart. |
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Post by Hoosier X on May 23, 2014 12:45:21 GMT -5
Spider Baby is wonderful.Don't forget the fabulous Mantan Moreland is in it as well It's probably the best of Lon Chaney's late-career performances. Director Jack Hill said that Lon promised not to drink during shooting. The actresses who play the girls are great in it, as is Carol Ohmart. One of the girls is Jill Banner. (She's the one who kills Mantan Moreland.) And she is amazing in Spider-Baby.
She should also be remembered for a small part in a Dragnet episode where she says to Joe Friday ... "You got nice eyes ... for a cop."
She also has a small part in Deadlier than the Male with Elke Sommer and Sylva Koscina.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 24, 2014 15:59:35 GMT -5
The 1,000 Eyes Of Dr. Mabuse (1960)
Peter Van Eyck,Gert Frobe,Dawn Adams,Wolfgang Preiss,Werner Peters
D-Fritz Lang
A TV reporter is gunned down in a car during a trafic stop,simular to Dr.Mabuse's method in The Testament Of Dr. Mabuse. Inspector Kras(Gert "Goldfinger" Frobe) leads the investigation and is contacted by a blind psychic who foresaw the murder.Meanwhile at the Luxor Hotel a woman (Dawn Adams) is on a ledge threatening suicide when she is saved by a traveling American businessman Henry Travers( Peter "Spy Who Came In From The Cold/Bridge At Remagen" Eyck). Why is Inspector Kras the target of numerous assasination attempts?Why is the blind psychic saying Dr Mabuse is behind the scheme when he's been dead for 30 years?Why is the woman trying to kill herself?
Fritz Lang returns to Germany to make his last film and revive his most well known villian. The film forsees many of the techniques of the later James Bond and other spy films. The suave hero,the villian with a masterplan,gadgets and spying devices,the hidden lair etc. The pace is very quick with many intercutting scenes.Supposedly the film was severely edited and can be difficult to fathom all the motivations especially when relying on the English subtitles. But it is action packed. Definitely not on the same level as Testament but an entertaining actioneer.
Lang is no longer using those early,shadowlike,film noir shots.Its a straight forward thriller and worthwhile followup
6 and 1/2 stars of 10
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 25, 2014 6:02:52 GMT -5
Return of Dr. Mabuse (1961)
Gert Frobe,Lex Barker,Werner Peters,Wolfgang Preiss,Daliah Lavi
D-Harald Reinl
Commissioner Lohmann (Frobe) is back and investigating the murder of a member of Interpol . Meanwhile the head of a German crime organisation wants to come into contact with the visiting Chicago mobster. But who is this? Mysterious murders happen and all trails lead to a penitentiary. But there is Joe Como, FBI agent, who is helping commissioner Lohmann. But soon Lohmann doubts Comos' identity. When Lohmann sees the name of Dr. Mabuse mentioned in a book found by a victim he believes that Dr. Mabuse is the mind behind the crimes...
Reasonably good spy action flick.I like Gert Frobe.He's rumpled,bulldog persistent and likes to grab his wife's big butt.Lex Barker is the Bond-type.I keep cracking up whenever the action moves to "The Bimbo Bar". Dr. Mabuse has an entire German prison under his mind control.There's a particular prisoner who makes Man Mountain Marko look meek.The film is never dull,you're never sure who is the real Dr. Mabuse and there are some gruesome deaths as well. Again,an interesting film to watch as a percurser to the later Spy film craze 6 of 10 stars
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 25, 2014 6:32:00 GMT -5
Alice In Wonderland (1951)
Voices of Kathryn Beaumont,Sterling Holloway,Ed Gwynn,Jerry Colonna
D-Clyde Geronimi,Wilfred Jackson
A young English girl falls down a rabbit hole and meets The White Rabbit,The Mad Hatter,The March Hare,Cheshire Cat,The Queen of Hearts and so many more
A while back I decided to view all the Disney full-length animation features and this is #13.And somehow its actually the first time I've seen this.It has 3 of my favorite voice actors all together (Holloway,Gwynne and Colonna)
Alice was the first Disney film to be shown on TV (1954-edited to fit one hour). The bonus disc for the DVD contains much of the TV promotion Disney did for the movie's premiere including a one hour special with Edgar Bergen,Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd,a half hour live musical performance featuring Kathryn Beaumont and Sterling Holoway on the Fred Waring Show,an 11 minute behind the scenes featurette,deleted scenes and songs and a Thru The Looking Glass cartoon with Mickey Mouse
Whats most impressive is the sheer halucinagenic feeling to the film with its vibrant,swirling colors and off the wall phrases and logic. I always heard people saw Fantasia was the movie to watch when stoned but Alice is right up there as well.In fact,in the 1970s Alice was the #1 Disney movie rented out by colleges for screenings.
You're never too old for Alice-er wait,that didn't come out right. Now to listen to The Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit 9 of 10 stars
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