All The Glenn Strange Monster Scenes From "House Of Frankenstein" (1944) (video)

 

Actor/stuntman Glenn Strange made his debut as the Frankenstein Monster...

...in the 1944 Universal classic "House of Frankenstein." The character had previously been portrayed by Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney, Jr., and Bela Lugosi in the earlier films in the "Frankenstein" series.

As legend has it, Strange was visiting makeup maestro Jack Pierce's chair to get a fake scar for his current role, and Pierce, recognizing a great facial structure and physique when he saw it, notified execs that he had found their new Frankenstein Monster.

After playing the role in this and following movies ("House of Dracula", "Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein"), Glenn Strange's Monster became second only to that of Boris Karloff. In fact, when Karloff died many newspapers mistakenly used a photo of Strange in the obit.

Strange's craggy visage as the Monster continues to be popular in model kits, posters, action figures, and other elements of monster fandom.   

Video by Porfle Popnecker. I neither own nor claim any rights to this material. Just having some fun with it. Thanks for watching!

 

 

All The Glenn Strange Monster Scenes From "House Of Frankenstein" (1944) (video)

THE BLACK CAT/ THE TORTURE CHAMBER OF DR. SADISM -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 4/20/22



THE BLACK CAT (1966)



Stark, crisp black-and-white photography and a knack for embellishing Edgar Allan Poe's short story with a modern edge highlight THE BLACK CAT (Severin Films, 1966), a Dallas-based horror that transcends its low budget while still retaining that old bargain basement charm in a way somewhat reminiscent of CARNIVAL OF SOULS.

This time, a troubled young heir named Lou (Robert Frost), still holding a grudge against his dead father, eases his fractured psyche with alcohol and bad behavior while his faithful wife Diana (Robyn Baker) looks on in helpless despair.

Hoping to lessen his hostility, she gives him the gift of a black cat which he names Pluto. But the cat, who is a good judge of character, strikes out at Lou, who then cuts out the animal's eye in a fit of drunken rage.

 

Later, he tortures and then electocutes the cat, burning down his own uninsured mansion and ending up near-destitute.  Shock treatments and a stay in the psycho ward seem to get him back on the right track, but after returning home he reverts to his old drunken, violent ways and ends up committing a heinous act that readers of Poe will have anticipated since the first scene. 

Poe, thankfully, is well-served by this imaginative adaptation which pretty much hits all the main notes of his immortal short story while enriching it with interesting character studies and a few surprises. (I doubt if even Poe conceived of ending the story with a car chase.)

The brief use of gore is effective, with one shot of a hatchet lodged in someone's skull quite familiar to those of us who grew up reading Denis Gifford's "A Pictorial History of Horror Movies."

The acting is often rather unpolished but the enthusiasm of the cast makes up for this.  Frost is particularly intense and watchable in his portrayal of the slowly disintegrating Lou, while the lovely Baker elicits our sympathy.  Sadie French is effective as their concerned housekeeper Lillian.

Fans of another Texas-based production, Larry Buchanan's CURSE OF THE SWAMP CREATURE (also from 1966), should recognize that film's mad scientist, Jeff Alexander, as one of the two police detectives who visit Lou in his home in the final scenes. 

This is director Harold Hoffman's only directing credit, and he acquits himself well with a lean and briskly-paced effort.  Being a sucker for good black-and-white photography, I loved the look of the film.

 

One of the last existing 35mm prints is used here, with a few missing bits filled in from a more time-worn copy. The result is a mostly pristine picture with occasional defects, which, for me, only add to its nostalgic appeal.

The only problem I had with THE BLACK CAT is that, as a cat lover, I cringed at the apparent abuse of the cat in some scenes. I find such elements quite distressing, markedly lessening my appreciation of the movie.

That aside, THE BLACK CAT is the kind of low-budget 60s horror yarn that rises above its modest production values while still retaining an appealing low-rent ambience, a combination devoutly to be wished by conneisseurs of such delectably downbeat fare.



THE TORTURE CHAMBER OF DR. SADISM (1967)



The second half of this double-feature would be a perfect choice for a festival of quintessential Halloween films.  THE TORTURE CHAMBER OF DR. SADISM, aka "Blood Demon" (Severin Films, 1967), is like the most extreme carnival spook house you could imagine, and walking through it should easily supply you with double your daily dose of hokey horror.

This West German production takes place in the olden days of Europe and boasts a non-stop array of impressive found locations and lavish sets, especially when we get to Count Regula's dark, crumbling castle and all its subterranean passageways and chambers of horror.

The story begins with a flashback of the Count's public execution, a well-deserved one in that he has murdered twelve local girls in a quest for immortality which was thwarted by his inability to score the crucial thirteenth.

 

His punishment--to be drawn and quartered in the village square.  His final curse--to return and get revenge upon the descendants of the judge who condemned him and the woman who escaped his dungeon in order to report him to the police.

Flash forward thirty-five years, and we find those descendants drawn to the village by mysterious letters.  They are Roger Mont Elise (Lex Barker), a man searching for information about his own origin, and Baroness Lilian von Brabant (Karin Dor), who has been told that she has inherited the late Count's castle.

The two meet on the long coach ride to the castle and are smitten with one another even as the trip proves fraught with danger and growing terror.  With the saucy, gun-toting priest Father Fabian (Vladimir Medar) and Lilian's chipper servant Babette (Christiane Rücker), they arrive at the castle after an extended ordeal through a nightmarish forest filled with human body parts and hanging corpses.

 

Once there, the film lives up to its name with a castle whose creepy torch-lit tunnels lead from one chamber of horrors to another as each member of the group falls victim to Count Regula's wretched undead servant Anatol (Carl Lange) in a series of tortures from which each will barely escape. 

A worse-for-wear Christopher Lee finally makes his entrance as Count Regula about halfway through, setting into motion his plan to make Lilian the thirteenth victim in his bid for immortality. For this, her blood must be super-charged by terror, so she is placed into a pit of vipers while Roger suffers the threat of the slowly-descending pendulum blade (giving the film its tenuous connection to Poe) as the seconds to Regula's great regeneration tick inexorably away.

The cast is marvelous, including a distinguished Lex Barker (one of the many screen Tarzans) and Karin Dor of YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE fame at her most charming.  Medar is a delightful comedy-relief Fabian, and Christiane Rücker as Babette is likable as well. As for the two villains, Lange's loathsome Anatol is ample support to the sinister Lee as they indulge in all manner of evil and sadism.

Taken from two collector's 16mm prints of the film, Severin Films' copy is quite satisfactory despite switching frequently between faded color and black-and-white.  It also alternates between good condition and somewhat worn, but as I've said many times, I like a print that looks like it has been around the block a few times. 

THE TORTURE CHAMBER OF DR. SADISM is a cornucopia of spook-house imagery that's quite graphically gory for 1967 while still comfortably old-fashioned in its execution. The florid script by Manfred R. Köhler (with just a pinch of Poe) tosses in everything but the kitchen sink in order to give us the creepy-crawlies, and the whole thing is lavishly, enjoyably over-the-top.


THE BLACK CAT/ THE TORTURE CHAMBER OF DR. SADISM (Hemisphere Box of Horrors Exclusive) Special Features:
Blood Demon Trailer
Black Cat Trailer
English subtitles

THE BLACK CAT/ THE TORTURE CHAMBER OF DR. SADISM -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

THE BLOODY APE -- DVD Review by Porfle

Just so I don't give you the wrong impression, I want to say up front that this is a favorable review. I had loads of fun watching THE BLOODY APE, writer-director Keith J. Crocker's affectionate homage to the drive-in trash of yesteryear, and will enthusiastically recommend it to people who come knocking at my door trying to sell me a satellite dish or invite me to their church. 

Now that my disclaimer is out of the way and we can speak freely, I'll try to describe this surreal cinematic artifact to you. Imagine a cross between LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, BLOOD FEAST, and your dad's worst home movies. Whatever your mind comes up with, this is worse. Though filmed in 1997, it looks as though it were shot in 1967, buried, and then dug up by somebody's dog in 1997. It makes PINK FLAMINGOS look like it was directed by Terrence Malick. In fact, it makes almost literally every other movie ever made look good in comparison, unless, of course, Billy Crystal is in it. 

All of this, however, is simply part of THE BLOODY APE's makeshift charm. Crocker, a devoted grindhouse film aficionado who for several years published the popular fanzine "Exploitation Journal" with his pal George Reis, eschewed the "shot-on-video" look of much of today's indy titles and went instead for the more traditional look of actual film. Super 8mm film, that is--exactly the same stuff that all of us pre-home-video auteurs used in order to make our own geeky home monster movies back in high school. Except here, Crocker managed to shoot a feature film and get it released, so you gotta admire him for that. It's this homespun ingenuity and love for moviemaking that help make THE BLOODY APE such a strangely fascinating experience. 

The gleefully bizarre screenplay by Crocker and Reis is another factor. Loosely inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's "Murders in the Rue Morgue", it's the story of a carnival barker named Lampini (after George Zucco's character in HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN) and his beloved performing gorilla, Gordo. After being screwed over by an abusive garage mechanic and a crooked rabbi, and then rejected by his girlfriend Ginger while he's proposing to her, Lampini decides to use his ape as an instrument of revenge. Taking a cue from Bela Lugosi's diabolical aftershave murders in THE DEVIL BAT, Lampini mails Ginger some of his special homemade banana cream soap. This lures Gordo to Ginger's apartment, where he kills her roommates in a frenzy of fake blood and banana-scented soap suds. 

In one scene, we get to see what would've happened in PSYCHO if Janet Leigh's shower had been interrupted by a crazed gorilla instead of Norman Bates. Then Gordo chases another naked roommate around the livingroom couch a few times before squeezing the life out of her as she looks into the camera and laughs. Rabbi Rabinowitz and Vic White, the incredibly racist garage mechanic, are next on the list, having been given bunches of bananas by Lampini beforehand. I don't want to spoil too much of the intricate plot, but this is where Gordo rapes Rabbi Rabinowitz' wife and then disembowels her. Although this sounds horrible, the fact that the victim is giggling through the whole ordeal tends to soften the heinousness a bit. 

Gordo's reign of terror then goes on to include car theft--he drives around until stopped by a cop, whose head he pulls off--and the murder of an ill-mannered video store clerk, which is justifiable. Equally shocking is the scene in which a hippie is furtively taking a leak in some bushes when the confused ape mistakes part of his anatomy for a banana, and... During all of this, an incredibly racist police lieutenant named LoBianco (Reis, who also plays Gordo) is irrationally convinced that the whole killing spree is the work of an innocent black man named Duane Jones (after the lead actor in George Romero's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD), which is a whole other subplot. With his ridiculous hair-helmet wig and fake goatee, Reis is as over-the-top hilarious as everything else about this movie. And as mechanic Vic White, Larry Koster is like a Jerky Boys character come to life. The early scene in which he browbeats the incredulous Duane (Chris Hoskins) out of the garage simply for wanting his car fixed sets the goofball tone for the rest of the film. 

Acting honors, however, must go to Paul Richichi as Lampini. With his dopey porkpie hat, cane, and Dracula cape, the ever-cheerful Lampini is a delightfully absurd character brimming with memorable quotes, as during his romantic dinner with Ginger: "The sky has never been bluer, the grass has never been greener, and Japanese sports cars have never been smaller, ever since I laid my head between your breasts," he gushes over a plate of Spaghetti-O's. "My love for you is as deep and as wide as the expanses of your vaginal cavity." To which the nonplussed Ginger responds: "What's the matter with you tonight? You're acting like a crackpot--like one of those self-proclaimed medicine men from the days of yore." Later, regretting his callous treatment of Gordo, he laments that he has become "so overwhelmed with repugnance for my enemies, that my love for my ape completely disappeared." 

Now, this is where I usually mention stuff like image and sound quality, but we'll skip that part and go on to the bonus features. The audio commentary is an entertaining gabfest with Crocker, Reis, Richichi, and Wild Eye DVD's Rob Hauschild, who directed the informative "making of" featurette, "Grindhouse Gorilla." Next is a Crocker short film, "One Grave Too Many", which boasts a crude sort of creepiness. Lots of other miscellaneous stuff is included: a gallery of covers from the "Exploitation Journal" 'zine, trailers for THE BLOODY APE and BLITZKRIEG: ESCAPE FROM STALAG 69, a pressbook, original VHS cover art, lobby cards, stills, and other related art. 

If you've read this far, you already know whether or not you should watch THE BLOODY APE as soon as possible or avoid it like the plague. It's loaded with exploitation goodies--nudity, violence, badly-done gore, bizarre situations, extreme characters, weird comedy--and done in such an unabashedly crude way that it radiates its own strange kind of fascination. As a Poe adaptation, George Reis accurately comments: "If you're running down the films based on Edgar Allan Poe, it's--one of them." As a study in miscommunication, as Crocker describes it, you couldn't find characters that are more miscommunicative. As cinema, it's like some kind of Super 8mm folk art whose worth can only be measured by each individual who watches it. As for me, I found it to be one of the funniest and most entertaining comedy-horror films that I watched yesterday.

 

THE BLOODY APE -- DVD Review by Porfle

THE BEST OF THE THREE STOOGES -- DVD Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 10/20/2018

 

If you're already an ardent collector of Stooge-iana, you may have most or all of this material in your collection. But for the Stooge fan who doesn't yet have it all, or for new fans just wanting to get started, Time-Life's new three volume, 13-disc DVD collection THE BEST OF THE THREE STOOGES might be a good bet for big Stooge entertainment.

The eight discs in volumes one and two are from Sony's "The Three Stooges Collection" and contain the first 87 Columbia Stooge shorts--namely, all of the Curlys save for the last ten or so--from 1934 to 1945 (ending with "Micro-Phonies.")  For those who don't own the entire Columbia short subjects output from Sony this would be a good place to start.

For those who do have all the shorts on previous discs as I do, the five discs in volume three contain the really interesting stuff.  Disc one features the Stooges made-for-TV biopic from 2000 co-starring Michael Chiklis as Curly, as well as three vintage Columbia cartoons from the 30s and 40s in which the boys pop up as guest stars.  Since I don't remember ever seeing any Columbia cartoons before, this was of special interest to me as a fan of vintage animated cartoons in general.

Volume 3 disc 2 is a gold mine of Columbia shorts including 14 solo appearances by Shemp, 10 Joe Besser shorts, and 4 Joe Derita shorts.  Shemp either stars or plays back-up to the great Andy Clyde (later to join William Boyd as Hop-a-Long Cassidy's comedy sidekick) and is in his zestful prime here, adding extra zing to even the most pedestrian scripts.

Besser, meanwhile, plays his usual prissy self in some amusing entries which share some gags and even storylines with familiar Stooges comedies.  An acquired taste, perhaps, I find Joe Besser fun and entertaining whether playing third Stooge as he would later or headlining his own shorts as he does quite well here.

After that comes something really interesting, namely seeing a young Joe Derita himself (with hair!) in his very own comedy shorts. I'd never seen him in any non-Stooge films before, so I was surprised to see this relatively bland comedian with little or no discernible comic persona starring in his own series of films.

Unlike Shemp and Besser, Derita goes about the usual Columbia-style slapstick gags and destructive physical comedy by rote, bringing little personality to his onscreen character save for a general passivity and namby-pamby attitude.  With his constantly perplexed expression, he displays little comic timing or finesse, merely playing his character well enough to get the job done.

Be that as it may, I found these shorts fascinating to watch and an indication of his later incarnation as perhaps the least-liked third Stooge.  The Bessers are equally fascinating, albeit much more entertaining.

Stooge regular Christine McIntyre is a most welcome co-star much of the time, and several other Stooges stock players show up here and there.  It's interesting to see how the Columbia shorts without the Stooges lack that extra zippy, cartoonish quality, and it quickly becomes apparent that Columbia's best short subject output was definitely the Three Stooges comedies.

The real treasure in this disc, though, is the collection of Shemp Howard shorts.  Seeing this seasoned, highly-talented, hilarious, and all-around lovable comic superstar at work on his own before being absorbed back into the Three Stooges as Curly's replacement is a real pleasure.

Volume 3 disc 3 contains three of the Stooges' feature films, HAVE ROCKET WILL TRAVEL, THE OUTLAWS IS COMING, and ROCKIN' IN THE ROCKIES. The latter is an earlier one with Curly in which the boys appear sparsely as guest stars in a western-tinged romp.

HAVE ROCKET WILL TRAVEL and THE OUTLAWS IS COMING were among those feature films from Columbia (with Joe Derita as third Stooge) made to cash in on the explosive success that resulted when the Stooge shorts were released to TV and became a sensation.

HAVE ROCKET WILL TRAVEL is an endearing spoof of 50s rocket expedition thrillers ending with a 10-minute party sequence that very much resembles one of their early Columbia shorts.

The raucous THE OUTLAWS IS COMING pokes fun at westerns with co-stars Adam West and Nancy Kovack, and showcases as its trigger-happy outlaws an array of well-known TV kid show hosts known for airing the Stooge comedies to much acclaim.  The disc itself is identical to one contained in an earlier Mill Creek DVD collection.

Besides the Columbia solo shorts, my favorite part of this set is volume 3 disc 4-5's wonderful 9-part documentary series, "Hey Moe! Hey Dad!", hosted by Moe's son Paul.  This densely-packed presentation is several hours long and loaded with choice photos, film and TV clips, home movie footage, audio interview segments, and other treats.

Paul Howard's engaging narration distills the best of the Three Stooges books such as "Moe Howard and the Three Stooges" (Moe's autobiography), "Three Stooges Scrapbook", "Curly: An Illustrated Biography of the Superstooge", and others, some of which were co-written by Moe's daughter, Joan.

Appearing onscreen along with Paul and Joan are other important figures such as Don Lamond, Curly's daughter Marilyn, cartoon voice artist Billy West, and other close relatives and friends.

The documentary series starts at the very beginning with the infant Horwitz brothers, takes us through their showbiz beginnings with top banana Ted Healy, and then recounts the Stooges' rise as stars of the Columbia shorts, their fall when the short subjects department was closed, their re-emergence as global superstars with the success of their comedies on TV and subsequent Columbia feature films, and their continuing posthumous popularity.

The documentary takes its time and examines each phase of their lives in exhaustive detail, and should prove incredibly engaging to anyone who loves the Stooges.  Finally, the set contains an illustrated booklet with Stooge biographies and other info.

THE BEST OF THE THREE STOOGES lives up to its name, at least in part, since the Curly shorts included here are indeed among their best, and the 9-part documentary is surely the best of its kind. That, along with the wonderful solo shorts, cartoons, and features, make this a cornucopia that Stooge fans will want to indulge in.



AVAILABLE NOW, EXCLUSIVELY AT THREESTOOGESDVDS.COM
DVD SRP: $99.95

THE BEST OF THE THREE STOOGES -- DVD Review by Porfle

The Day Corey Feldman Turned Into Michael Jackson, Part 2 (video)

 

Life is full of unexpected events.

For example, you never know exactly when Corey Feldman is going to turn into Michael Jackson.

But one thing's for sure...when he does, things happen.

 

Video by Porfle Popnecker. I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it. Thanks for watching!

 

The Day Corey Feldman Turned Into Michael Jackson, Part 2 (video)