Showing posts with label Universal Studios. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Universal Studios. Show all posts

Thursday, October 29, 2015

SCARY RANDOM HORROR TRIVIA



Stuntman Alex Stevens was the werewolf (top photo) on Dark Shadows. He also was the clumsy baker (bottom photo) at the end of the counting sequences on Sesame Street. On Dark Shadows, they used a sound effects for the growl (sometimes badly slip cued). On Sesame Street, they overdubbed the voice of Jim Henson, announcing the number of fancy pastries he was going to drop on the way down the stairs.

Speaking of baking, Vincent Price's grandfather invented baking powder.

At the time he was making Night of the Living Dead, George Romero and his Image Ten production company was also making the "Picture Picture" sequences for Mister Rogers Neighborhood.

The mid-60s British horror film The Deadly Bees, features an uncredited appearance by the British band The Birds (referred to on MST3K as "The Skinnys") which featured guitarist Ron Wood, later of the Jeff Beck Group, The Faces and the Rolling Stones.

Actor/director Paul Naschy wrote several paperback Western's under the name Jack Mills.

Donnie Dunagan, who played Basil Rathbone's son in Son of Frankenstein, was also the voice of Bambi.


At the time she made The Brain That Wouldn't Die, actress Virginia Leith (above), who played "Jan in the Pan," was married to actor Donald Harron, best known as KORN newscaster Charlie Farquharson on Hee Haw.

Actor David Hess, who played Krugg in the original Last House On the Left, wrote Pat Boone's hit song, "Speedy Gonzales."

Lon Chaney Sr. made more than 150 movies in his lifetime, but only 40 of them survive intact. One of the lost films is London After Midnight, which was remade as Mark of the Vampire.

The 70s Ghost Busters

The 70s Monster Squad

Besides being cult horror comedies of the 80s, Ghost Busters and The Monster Squad both share their names with live action Saturday morning TV shows of the 70s.

Wes Craven named Freddy Kruger after a kid that used to beat him up in school.

The term "horror" as a movie genre was not used until 1934.

To make his face appear sunken, Boris Karloff took out his bridge work, while playing the Frankenstein monster.

Valarie Hobson, who was in Werewolf of London and Bride of Frankenstein, was later married to British politician John Profumo, who was involved in the sex scandal that was the subject of the 1989 film Scandal.

Mexican actor German Robles was the first movie vampire to have fangs. This was in the 1957 film The Vampire. The second was Christopher Lee in 1958's Horror of Dracula.

Fredric March was the first actor to win an Oscar for a horror movie for the 1931 version of Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde.

Speaking of Fredric March: A play by Alberto Casella, "La Morte in vacanza," was filmed twice. First as Death Takes a Holiday (1934) with Fredric March and Meet Joe Black (1998) with Brad Pitt. Brad Pitt also lived in a mansion March had built while he was making Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.

The 1932 film The Mummy was not based on a fictional work but an original idea from Universal Pictures. Much of the film was parallel to the 1931 movie Dracula. The ankh was used a substitute for the crucifix. Edward Van Sloan's character, Dr. Muller, is similar to Dr. Van Helsing, which he also played in Dracula. Both use Swan Lake as their opening theme song.


The original design of the Creature from the Black Lagoon was based on the Oscar statue. The final design was created by a woman named Millicent Patrick (above), who was also an artist for Disney. She was not given credit for the design.


In an interview, actress Lenore Aubert (left) said making Abbott & Costello Meets Frankenstein was stressful because she was suffering from stomach flu and most of her wardrobe for the film consisted of white dresses.

The human characters from Scooby Doo were originally designed for a cartoon based on the TV series The Many Loves of Dobbie Gillis, to cash in on the success of the Archie cartoon series.

Bette Davis was unavailable to overdub some of her dialog in the made for TV horror film, The Dark Secret of Harvest Home. She asked for it to be overdubbed by actor/comedian Michael Greer, who stared in the horror film The Messiah of Evil. She had seen his imitation of her on the Tonight Show.



Artist Gene Colan based the look of the Marvel Comics Dracula on actor Jack Palance. One year later, in 1973, Palance played Dracula in a made for TV movie. 







 
  


Friday, October 31, 2014

THE OTHERS - LESSER KNOWN HORROR FILM STARS

Let's face it there are iconic of horror film actors that people of any age can name and recognize. Karloff, Lugosi, Chaney, Price, Lorre, Christopher Lee, and Peter Cushing. You might even add Jack Nicholson into the mix.

And then there are some horror film actors, who were utility players or the farm team. They may not have worked for the big studios, may have labored in the shadow of the big stars, worked in other countries or their lives were tragically cut short, however, no self-respecting monster kid would say they don't know who they are. Even casual fans see them and go "Oh yeah, THAT GUY!" So, I decided to pay homage to those individual who were the stars of some lesser know films, but defiantly should be remembered.

LIONEL ATWILL

Lionel Atwill worked both in horror films for Warner Brother and Universal. Usually played a mad scientist.


LESLIE BANKS
Stared in CHAMBER OF HORRORS and THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME.

JOHN CARRADINE
I really don't have room to list every horror film John Carradine was in, but I also don't have room to list every Western John Carradine was in. Second to Christopher Lee for playing Dracula the most times.

TOD SLAUGHTER
I wrote about his turn as Sweeney Todd in another post. He also was in the overlooked werewolf film, THE FACE AT THE WINDOW, as well as HORROR MANIACS, THE MURDER IN THE RED BARN, and THE CRIMES AT THE DARK HOUSE.

J. CARROLL NASH
Among his horror credits include DRACULA VS FRANKENSTEIN, THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS, THE MONSTER MAKER, HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, and DR. RENAULT'S SECRET.

GEORGE ZUCCO
Appeared in THE MUMMY'S HAND, THE MONSTER & THE GIRL,THE MAD MONSTER, DR. RENAULT'S SECRET, THE MUMMY'S TOMB, DEAD MEN WALK, THE MAD GHOUL, VOODOO MAN, FOG ISLAND, and RETURN OF THE APE MAN, and several others.

LARID CREGAR
Stared in the sound version of THE LODGER and HANGOVER SQUARE. Died from excessive weight loss on a crash diet.
ANTON DIFFRING
The perfect Aryan villain. Appeared in THE MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH, CIRCUS OF HORRORS, FAHRENHEIT 451, THE BEAST MUST DIE, and played Dr. Frankenstein in a famous Hammer/Universal TV pilot, The Tales of Frankenstein.

MICHAEL GOUGH
Appeared in THE HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM, THE SKULL, KONGA, BLACK ZOO, DR. TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS, CURSE OF THE CRIMSON ALTAR, and many others. Also played Alfred the Butler in the Batman movie series.

GERMAN ROBLES
Starred in THE VAMPIRE, THE VAMPIRE'S COFFIN, THE CURSE OF NOSTRADAMUS, THE CASTLE OF MONSTERS, THE BLOOD OF NOSTRADAMUS, NOSTRADAMUS AND THE DESTROYER OF MONSTER, and THE BRAINIAC. He also dubbed the Spanish voices of Dr. Tom Horton on Days of Our Lives, KITT on Knight Rider and both Col. Henry Blake & Col. Sherman Potter on M*A*S*H.
PAUL NASCHY
The King of Spanish horror films. Best known as the cursed werewolf, Waldermar Daninsky. Here is his IMDB listing.
ROBERT QUARY
He was Count Yorga. Nuff said.

DAVID HESS
Best known as Krug in THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, he also appeared in HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK, SWAMP THING, BODY COUNT, and ZOMBIE NATION. Also wrote the songs "Start Movin" for Sal Mineo, "I Got Stung" for Elvis and "Speedy Gonzales" for Pat Boone.

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Actress Jane "Poni" Adams Dies

HOUSE OF DRACULA Actress Jane Adams Dies - Nuke The Fridge

She was the first actress to play Batman's love interest, Vicki Vale. You may also recognize her as the hunchback nurse in House of Dracula and the blind piano player in Brute Man.

Saturday, November 16, 2013

THE MOST UNDERRATTED PARODY FILM OF THE 70s - THE LAST REMAKE OF BEAU GESTE

Last year, during the Countdown To Halloween, I wrote a post about how I believed Messiah of Evil was one of the most underrated horror films of the 70s. I have been thinking for quite sometime about a post about what i believe to be the most underrated parody film of the 70s: The Last Remake of Beau Geste.

The 70s was the Golden Age of Parody films. The start of this was probably the 1969 film, Take The Money and Run, which was Woody Allen's poke at TV "true crime documentaries," gangster and prison films.  The peak of this was around 1974 when Mel Brooks gave us both Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein and the Monty Python's gave us Monty Python and the Holy Grail. At that point, major studios were wanting parody films. Shortly after Mel Brooks Silent Movie came out, Universal Studios hired Young Frankenstein/Silent Movie star (and Monty Python friend) Marty Feldman to write, direct and star in a film parody version of the story of Beau Geste, which had been filmed numerous times since the beginning of the movie industry.


The plot of the novel (and later movies) revolves around a British military man, Sir Hector, adopting sons (The novel has three although this movies only has two boys: Beau and Digby) after the disappointment of his wife dying while giving birth to a daughter. When Sir Hector marries a young golddigger, Beau takes the family's valuable diamond and flees to Morocco to join the French Foreign Legion. His brothers follow him. 

The stories of Universal being run in the 70s by clueless old white, conservative guys who didn't know what audiences would like and not could fill a book. They didn't understand the popularity of The Six Million Dollar Man among children and they just about pulled the plug on both American Graffiti and Animal House. They also turned down another George Lucas project called Star Wars. So it is not surprising that they didn't like Marty Feldman's finished version of the film and had it re-edited before it was released. Even after test audiences preferred the Feldman version, Universal released their version.

While there is apparently no surviving version of the "Director's Cut," the Universal version is nothing to sneeze at. There are numerous great gags in the film from Feldman trying to stop the 30's Universal logo from spinning, an abundance of funny signs on walls, pokes at movie cliches, camel humps being deflated after being shot, a commercial for a used camel salesman and cameos by Ed McMahon and Garry Cooper. Contrary to what IMDB and other resources say McMahon is not a "Arab horseman," he is really playing Ed McMahon in Arab clothing. Cooper appears in footage from the 1939 version in which he played the main character. He offers Feldman a cigarette.

Michael York plays a dashing version of Beau opposite Feldman as Beau's less-perfect brother Digby. Ann Margaret plays the sexy step-mother after the family jewel, Sinead Cusack as the daughter of the boy's adoptive father, Henry Gibson is the French general, Ted Cassidy as a blind cook, James Earl Jones is a Sheik, who talks like comedian Terry Thomas (who is also in the movie) and Peter Ustinov as Sgt. Markov, who not only has a prosthetic leg, but so to does his horse and teddy bear.


However, of all the great performers in the movie, my favorite is Michael McConkey (above), who plays young Digby. Where did they find a child that looked exactly like Marty Feldman???

Sadly, Universal still doesn't understand that there is a market for a great DVD release of this fun movie. You can buy it from Universal on-demand, however fans have said they only got a transfer of the movie on DVD. No menu, no chapters, no extras. If they could release both the released version and the director's cut, I'm sure there would be quite a few people who would buy it. Also it should have a good version of the trailer. I kept finding the same one on various websites and it has glitches.

If you can find a copy on VHS or watch it on You Tube, do so. It deserves more of an audience than it has gotten in the past few years.


Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Thursday, October 18, 2012

WHY I PREFER CHRISTOPHER LEE'S DRACULA OVER LUGOSI'S DRACULA

This may be one of those post which will get me into big trouble with a large group of people or may just cause an ugly debate between horror fans and aging monster kids. I have been watching some of the great and not-so-great horror films as I write these post and work on another horror related writing project. For quite some time, I have held a position about myself and, possibly, many of my generation. I prefer Christopher Lee's Dracula over Bela Lugosi's Dracula and other vampires.

Yes, I know this is blasphemy to many horror fans. Bela Lugosi is the first and to many the best Dracula/vampire actor. He set the standard by which all others are judged. He also created the archetype of what vampires are like. Lugosi gave Dracula and vampires a widow's peak hair, arching eyebrows, a tux and a thick Hungarian accent. He moved spoke slowly and moved silently into his victim's room (Dark Shadow's star Johnathan Frid described Lugosi's Dracula as "like ballet"). The truth is Lugosi only played Dracula in two films, but played vampires in a hand full of other movies.

In the mid 50's, Christopher Lee began playing Dracula in the films produced by the Hammer Studios. His Dracula had the cape and evening clothes, but Lee's Dracula was different. Instead of a thick Hungarian accent, Lee had a low bass voice. His hair was brushed back over his head. When he attacked his victim (who usually had huge breast that barely fit into a her blouse), he eyes turned red and began spurted blood, his face turned a light blue and he hissed like a panther. If the hero pulled a cross (that glows) or garlic, Lee's Dracula would exit by smashing through a window. That would scare horses (This is a Hammer Studio trademark. It was so prevalent in their Frankenstein series that Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder incorporated it into Young Frankenstein) and cause the music to burst into a frantic crescendo. When Lee's Dracula died at the end it was a epic production. He would burn into ashes in the sunlight, fall through the ice into a frozen pond, get impaled on a large, silver cross or waggon wheel or caught in hawthorn bushes.

Lee tends to be scarier thanks to special effects and the sexual overtones. However, what may have caused Lugosi scariness to diminish may have nothing to do with Lee and the folks at Hammer Studios. The blame for Lugosi losing his fear factor could be laid at the feet of both General Mills and Sesame Street.

I would say may people of my generation would agree that Christopher Lee is the Dracula of our nightmares with his hissing and spurting blood. When we see and hear Lugosi, we immediately thing of either Count Chocula cereal or Count Von Count of Sesame Street. Many authors on vampires and horror films note that small children are not scared of Bela Lugosi's Dracula. It could be because from a small age the Lugosi-type of vampire sells cereal and teaches us how to count. Bela Lugosi scared an older generation because he was first and not yet turned into a child friendly caricature. My generation waits for Lugosi to count or say, "Part of a nutritious breakfast."   

Thursday, March 29, 2012

COOL TV SHOW OPENING - THE NAME OF THE GAME



I have noticed many people on various lamenting the disappearance of theme songs and opening sequences on TV series. The truth is I don't get to see very many current TV shows due to work and I don't count some of the comments on these websites vallied. There are so many Freepers, rednecks and paid right-wing hacks commenting of the web these days that it is disgusting.

For some reason, maybe related to my recent viewing of The Untouchables, I thought about another Robert Stack series The Name of the Game. This was followed The Virginian as one of Universal Studios attempts at a 90 minute long program and like Four-In-One and NBC Mystery Movie, it was a "wheel" concept. However, unlike Four-In-One and NBC Mystery Movie, The Name of the Game centered on two journalist (Stack and Tony Franciosa) working for the same publisher (Gene Barry). Each week concentraited on one of the characters. Journalist as heroes? That was the good old days.

Like The Virginian, McCloud, and Colombo, The Name of the Game is rarely seen in syndication because of its 90 minute length. If it does turn up, it is on Saturday or Sunday afternoons or late nights. I remember seeing this show as a kid locally on KOLR-TV, Channel 10 in Springfield, MO. It usually aired on Saturday after cartoons.

I don't remember any of the stories, but the thing that always stuck with me was the opening credits and the jazzy theme song. Looking at the credits on You Tube, I find they are an amazing and very complex design. The use of color and the names of the actors forming their faces is very elaborate and must have been very complicated to create in 1969.

Sadly, The Name of the Game isn't on commercially produced DVDs yet. One episode I want to see is an episode where Gene Barry's character is in a car accident on the way to a symposium on environmental concerns. He wakes up in a dytopian future where the hippies are all old and facist psychiatrist control the government. It was directed by a young guy at Universal Studios named Steven Spielberg.

Also you cannot find a good commercial full length version of The Name of the Game theme song by Dave Grusin. He apparently released one version of it as the B-side of a 45 version of the theme from It Takes a Thief back in the early 70s. The only version I can track down for download is by (I'm not kiding) Dickie Goodman, the guy behind the cut-in novelty records "Mr. Jaws" and "Flying Saucer." Luckily, I have a copy of the original that was on Televisions Greatest Hits 3.

BTW: If you like full length versions of TV themes of the 70s, check out this Retrospace post of Charlie's Angels themes.    
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