[The Australian Panther]

The “Dr. Kildare” series is written by Max Brand, better known as a writer of Westerns, which was the pen name of prolific author Frederick Faust.
I have read some of his Westerns, but have not yet tackled one of his "Kildares'
https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/dr-kildare/

It blows my mind to be able to see a film that old look SO GOOD it looks like it was filmed "yesterday".

The visual quality of early films, shot on film stock, was always superlative, but you rarely see a modern copy created from an original print. In the same way, still photographs from the last century, shot on glass plates, will give you an image that will blow your mind. 

[profh0011]

I found myself really reminiscing this weekend. You know, I can't actually remember for certain which Hammer Dracula film I saw first. It could have been "HORROR..." or "BRIDES..." Either way, it was on TV. Somewhere along the line, Peter Cushing became one of my very favorite actors.

We started buying "Famous Monsters Of Filmland" magazine right with the issue commemorating the passing of Boris Karloff some weeks earlier. What an education that was (especially when we started getting back-issues, which tended to be even better-written). I recall reading about "...RISEN..." a lot, but it took several years before I saw it (also, on TV).

My Mom, my brother & I spent 6 months in Houston in mid-1971. The Venus Theatre was an old, run-down "2nd-run" place that used to do triple-bills for a BUCK on weekends. Once a month they ran horror movies. One month they ran "TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA". The week before I saw it, I ran across a paperback movie adaptation in the local drugstore-- "The Scars Of Dracula". I thought it must be the same story under a different name. I got the book, read it, was somewhat blown away... then was shocked on the weekend to find "TASTE..." was a completely-different movie. HOW MANY of these things were there?

Anyway, "TASTE..." was my 1st Chris Lee DRACULA on a big screen! Naturally, it had a huge impact on me.

I finally got to see "...RISEN..." on TV when we came back to Camden. Mom found another tiny 2nd-run theatre, the Glen Oaks Cinema, who used to run old-- and sometimes VERY old-- movies. One week they were going to run "BRIDES..." That may be the first time I went to a theatre to see a film I'd ALREADY seen on TV. Funny thing. The film was running late. It hadn't arrived yet! The manager offered to let us watch the weekday night-time film instead FOR FREE. That's how I first ran across The Marx Brothers-- on a big screen-- with "A DAY AT THE RACES". Isn't that nuts? The next week, we went back and saw "BRIDES..." Loved it even more than when it was on TV. Of course!

In late 1978, "THE NEW AVENGERS" got to America, on the CBS Late Movie. I went crazy over Joanna Lumley. 6 weeks later, this NEW Dracula movie-- WITH Christopher Lee-- was out in theatres. I'd read he wasn't going to do any more. Nice surprise. 15 minutes into "COUNT DRACULA AND HIS VAMPIRE BRIDE", I suddenly realized it looked familiar. I'd read about it-- and seen photos from it-- in "FM" magazine-- 5 YEARS earlier. How the hell did it take a movie 5 YEARS to get released here? It took me decades to find that out. Anyway, the big thrill for me was seeing Joanna Lumley in 2 different things in the same week. I didn't see her on a big screen again until a few years back, when the "ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS" move came out.

In late 1979, I got my 1st VCR, and in late 1980, The CBS Late Movie ran 2 Chris Lee Dracula movies-- probably, on concensecutive Friday nights. One was "TASTE..." --cut to ribbons. The other was... "DRACULA A.D. 1972". Also, as it turns out, cut to ribbons. I'd seen the coming attraction for that on TV back in '72, but nobody took me to see it. 8 YEARS late, I finally saw it. Totally blew my mind. After seeing most of the Hammer series, that night "A.D. 1972" became my FAVORITE of the whole bunch. I've been putting up with that lousy videotape I recorded for 42 YEARS now.

[profh0011]

"HORROR" as a genre really has a couple of revivals in my lifetime. Presumably, the first was a result of Hammer deciding to do a classic gothic horror adaptation IN COLOR. I'm not sure which came first, but Forry Ackerman's "Famous Monsters Of Filmland" magazine became an institution, and before long, Roger Corman began doing POE films in color. There was "THE TWILIGHT ZONE", "THRILLER", and my favorite (in fact, my introduction to horror), "THE OUTER LIMITS". Eventually we got stuff like "THE ADDAMS FAMILY" and "THE MUNSTERS". I was too young to fully appreciate all this at the time.

But then in the mid-late 60s, another wave started, and this time, it really got carried away! One might say it got re-started with "DRACULA PRINCE OF DARKNESS" or the "DARK SHADOWS" tv series, which almost vanished in its 1st year before, in pure desperation, Dan Curtis decided to do a story about a VAMPIRE (in the modern day!). When "Barnabas Collins" saved the show, he couldn't be killed off, and slowly evolved into the show's anti-hero.

But it does seem to me "DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE" is when the tidal wave really began. It was Hammer's biggest financial success, and in the wake of it, HORROR was unleashed everywhere-- in movies, on TV, in horror comics (first in B&W, then in color once the infamous censorship board, the "Comics Code" was REVISED).

Between 1968-1974, there was, I think, arguably, TOO MUCH horror to go around. Mind you, I love this stuff-- but there's such a thing as over-saturating the marketplace, and we absolutely got that during that period. Horror movies, vampire movies, DRACULA movies... so many that, even if you were a big fan, there were just too many to keep track of! And in the comics, at one point both Marvel and Warren were doing their own "Dracula" series. (Editora Taika in Brazil had started their own in 1959 and it was still going then-- but who the hell knew about comics from BRAZIL back then?)

Although Jonathan Frid's "Barnabas Collins" debuted on April 18, 1967, I've read it suggested that a story that really got the idea of a "modern day vampire" started as a FAD was a single comic-book story by artist Jerry Grandenetti, which appeared in FOR MONSTERS ONLY #7 (Apr'69 cover date)-- funny enough, the very first "monster" magazine my MOM picked up.

"VAMPIRE HUNT'69" was MY 1st exposure to Grandenetti's art. I understand when he worked for DC Comics, it used to drive some of his editors to distraction, as they'd try to get him to draw in a style they considered "more normal".


The whole thing is posted online, so, READ IT HERE!

http://magiccarpetburn.blogspot.com/2010/10/for-monsters-only-7-vampire-hunt-69.html

[profh0011]

When I said "over-saturated", I wasn't kidding.  I just spent the whole afternoon compiling this list...

DRACULA PRINCE OF DARKNESS  (Jan'66)

BLOOD OF DRACULA'S CASTLE  (filmed in 1966, released in May, August & August '69)

DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE  (Nov'68 in UK, Feb'69 in US)

DRACULA  (Mystery And Imagination TV episode / Nov'68 in UK)

NACHTS, WENN DRACULA ERWACHT / EL CONDE DRACULA / COUNT DRACULA 
(Apr'70 in West Germany, Nov'70 in Spain, Jul'73 in UK, Oct'73 in US)

TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA  (May'70 in UK, Jun'70 in US)

COUNT YORGA VAMPIRE  (Jun'70)

HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS  (Aug'70)

THE VAMPIRE LOVERS  (Sep'70 in UK, Oct'70 in US)

THE BODY BENEATH  (Sep/Dec'70)

SCARS OF DRACULA  (Nov'70 in UK, Dec'70 in US)

LUST FOR A VAMPIRE  (Jan'71 in UK, Jun'71 in Sweden, Sep'71 in US)

GUESS WHAT HAPPENED TO COUNT DRACULA?  (Feb'71)

LES LEVRES ROUGES / DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS  (May/Sep/Oct'71)

THE VELVET VAMPIRE  (Jun/Oct'71)

THE RETURN OF COUNT YORGA  (Aug'71)

DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN  (Sep/Dec'71)

TWINS OF EVIL  (Oct'71 in UK, Mar'72 in US)

THE NIGHT STALKER  (Jan'72)

DRACULA A.D. 1972  (Jun'72 in Denmark, Sep'72 in UK, Nov'72 in US)

DEATHMASTER  (Jul/Aug'72)

BLACULA  (Jul/Aug'72)

CAPTAIN KRONOS, VAMPIRE HUNTER  (filmed in 1972, Apr'74 in UK, Jun'74 in US)

EL GRAN AMOR DEL CONDE DRACULA / COUNT DRACULA’S GREAT LOVE 
(Apr'73 in Paris, May'73 in Spain, Mar'74 in US)

SON OF DRACULA  (May'73 in Arizona, VARIOUS dates & locations after that)

SCREAM, BLACULA, SCREAM  (Jun'73)

THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA 
(Nov'73 in West Germany, Jan'74 in UK, Oct'78 in US)

DRACULA  (Apr'74 in US, Jun'74 in UK)

THE LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES 
(Jul'74 in Hong Kong, Aug'74 in UK, Jun'79 in US)

VAMPIRA  (Oct'74 in UK, sometime in 1975 in US)

COUNT DRACULA  (Dec'77 in UK, Mar'78 in US)

DRACULA SUCKS  (1978)

NOSFERATU:  PHANTOM DER NACHT / NOSFERATU THE VAMPYRE
(Jan'79 in France, Feb'79 in West Germany, May'79 in UK, Oct'79 in US)

LOVE AT FIRST BITE  (Apr'79)

DRACULA  (Jul'79 in US, Aug'79 in UK)


Until I checked the dates, I had no idea when or in what order some of these came out.

[profh0011]

So, I saw COUNT DRACULA AND HIS VAMPIRE BRIDE at the Coronet Theatre with my parents in October 1978.  Quite a pleasant surprise all-round, and loved it.  You know, apart from anything else, it's always seemed to me that most Hammer Dracula sequels don't really have any plot.  THIS ONE DID.  In SPADES.  On STEROIDS.  Wow.  What the HELL was the matter with the idiots running Warner Brothers?  They already put up the production money, the film was already made.  WHY shelve it and refuse to put it out in America AT ALL?  So somebody else had to do it, 5 YEARS late?  Monstrously stupid.

Well, it took 2 years before I saw the earlier one.  The CBS Late Movie ran TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA on a Friday night, I'm pretty sure at 12:40 in the morning.  It was cut (even more than the theatrical release had been, it turns out), but I hadn't seen it since 1971 in Houston, and I taped it, and loved it.

Imagine my shock when they then ran DRACULA A.D. 1972.  I could not believe it.  It had virtually the SAME PLOT!  They'd gone and taken a movie they'd done only 2 years earlier, and done an updated REMAKE of it.  The nerve of some people!!!  And of course, with CBS running both of them (perhaps only a week or 2 apart), it only played up that fact.  This was really par for the course for CBS.  Earlier, they'd run THE NEW AVENGERS completely out of sequence, and in the process, took 2 similar episodes-- "Target" and "Angels Of Death"-- made a year apart-- and run them over 2 CONSECUTIVE weeks. This was sure to make unknowing viewers think, "Oh, look, we're only 3 weeks in, and they've ALREADY run out of ideas!" Is it any wonder I loved having my own VCR, earlier than most people, so that I could begin to make a stab at creating MY OWN schedule for watching things?

About the only thing I was familiar with in A.D. 1972 before seeing it was the prologue, as I'd seen photos of Dracula & Van Helsing both getting killed in "Famous Monsters" magazine.  The rest of the film was a surprise-- even a shock-- despite already having seen THE SEQUEL to it, 2 years earlier.

The first shock was seeing Stephanie Beachum as Jessica Van Helsing.  I couldn't believe it.  They did 2 connected films, with 4 of the same characters in it, and they RECAST the lead actress between films?  WHY would they do such a thing?  Beachum's pretty in her own way, but I was just CRAZY about Joanna Lumley, so right off the bat, I was, to say the least, a bit disappointed.  But there's something very strange about this particular bit of recasting.  Beachum has BIG KNOCKERS; Lumley is SLENDER.  Beachum was BLONDE; Lumley, who's always blonde, was a REDHEAD.  What???  How did that happen?  Also, while Lumley did walk into a basement full of vampire women in the sequel, and scream a few times, other than that, she seemed to be pretty intelligent, was praised by her grandfather for "knowing more about his work" than he did.  Beachum's Jessica seems AGGRESSIVELY dumb, making fun of her grandfather's work, not really seeming to be able to think for herself, and her choice of boyfriends, "Bob", is the dumbest, most annoying character in the movie.  I suppose one could argue that in the "2 years" we're told passed between films, she matured a lot-- but this is still very difficult to take.  I just watched the sequel again TODAY-- and I find it almost impossible to think of the 2 Jessicas as the same person.  If they were SISTERS, well, I know which one I'd ask out!

Christopher Neame as "Johnny Alucard" (a tip of the hat to the 1943 SON OF DRACULA) is really a sonofab****, isn't he?  Ralph Bates as Lord Courtley was a lot classier.  Both serve the identical purpose-- a servant of Dracula, who uses a group of thrill-seekers, to perform a Satanic mass, to ressurect his master.  Although, here, Johnny seems to "get it right" far more.  He doesn't get KILLED in the process.  I love the bit where he says, "Master!  I did it!  I brought you back!" --and his master says, "IT WAS MY WILL."  Oooh!!!

Another shock was Caroline Munro as Laura Bellows.  JESUS.  I didn't even know she was in this before I saw it.  I'd been a huge fan of hers ever since I saw THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD in theatres twice... and THE SPY WHO LOVED ME in theatres 3 times.  I even saw STARCRASH when it came out (dumb as it was).  She gets my vote for the MOST GORGEOUS girl in this entire movie, by a very wide margin.  Not the brightest, though, to say the least.  "NO, Johnny!!!  TAKE ME!!!"  As Adam West might have said, "Poor, deluded girl."  I was HORRIFIED when she got killed the way she did.  What a BASTARD!  I mean, if I were Dracula, I'd have made HER my consort-- not just tossed her aside like he did.

I know from repeated, incessant reports, that Christopher Lee disliked the scripts he kept getting for all these sequels.  And apparently, he particularly disliked the 2 films set in the present day.  Well, the scripts, to me, are SO MUCH better, SO MUCH more interesting, than anything they'd done since KISS OF THE VAMPIRE (which I never even saw until THIS year), I have to severely disagree.  In fact... I'd say, A.D. 1972 features what is, in my opinion, Lee's FINEST performance EVER as Dracula.  He looks better than in most of the sequels, he's SO INTENSE, and he has GREAT dialogue and attitude.  If he was pissed off doing this movie, he took that and used it to the film's advantage.

In a replay of a scene from ...RISEN..., he says to Johnny, "She is NOT the one.  You have NOT LEARNED to OBEY!"  When Johnny demands the power of immortality, there's a look of annoyance on Dracula's face that just tells me, he realizes the best thing is to turn this A-HOLE into a vampire-- knowing that when he does, he won't last long enough to be a problem anymore.  And sure enough, Johnny proves to be the most incompetent vampire ever.  Sunlight creeping thru his curtains, a sunroof in the bathroom, and running water.  He actually got killed in the ways we saw Dracula get it in BOTH HORROR... and PRINCE... --at the same time.  I laugh every time I see that scene.

Someone at Hammer must have realized, you really CAN'T do a proper DRACULA film without a VAN HELSING.  Peter Cushing came back to the series for the first time since 1960 (12 years earlier!), and, he COMPLETELY STEALS the movie!!  Lee may have gotten top billing, but there's no question-- THIS is Cushing's film.  And, having watched it again now 3 times in less than a week, I now feel A.D. 1972 is, in my view, Peter Cushing's BEST PERFORMANCE ever.  Yep.  I said it!

But back in 1980, the first time I saw this film, when it had commercial breaks, was somewhat fuzzy, and was cut to ribbons-- 5 whole MINUTES missing!!-- despite all that-- it became my FAVORITE Hammer Dracula of the whole series.

If only Joanna Lumley had been it it, it would have been PERFECT!

[profh0011]

I'd like to discuss the influences on this film.

The obvious one, mentioned before, is TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA.  Both films involve a group of thrill-seekers, infiltrated by a deciple of Dracula, who cons them into unwittingly performing a black mass ritual to ressurect him from oblivion.  Before it's done, said desciple winds up dead (though in drastically-different circumstances), the group get murdered one by one (with at least one of them being turned into a vampire in the process), and the "nice" girl winds up the intended target of Dracula... though in both films, she manages (again, under very different circumstances) to escape unscathed.  Both have one girl who's discarded, killed, and then dumped into a river!  Both have sequences where the hero (Paul, Lorrimer) spends some time preparing to face off against the villain.  There's even scenes in both where Dracula HURLS a large piece of metal at the hero in the church (and misses)!

You don't often see a "remake" done only 2 years after the original!  The only other instance I can recall would be how THE SAINT STRIKES BACK was loosely remade as THE SAINT TAKES OVER.  In that case, the first version was abominably bad, the redo, infinitely better.  Both had the same 3 actors as the leads, with only the girl playing 2 different roles between them.

However, the climax of A.D. 1972 is a huge improvement.  Instead of Dracula being taken down by a random "act of God" (lightning), Lorrimer works HARD to kill the bastard, tossing holy water in his face (just like in BRIDES...) causing him to fall into a pit and be impaled on multiple wooden stakes simultaneously --which seems inspired by THE RETURN OF DRACULA with Francis Lederer from 1958-- another film set in "the present day"!  (How about that?)


I put off re-watching this series for several years, with the intention that the next time I would watch, I'd upgrade the entire series to Blu-Ray.  As of this weekend, I now have ALL of them upgraded-- with only ONE left to watch.

But in the meantime, I managed to get ahold of the Univesal CLASSIC MONSTERS 51-film box set, and have been slowly working my way through that.  And in doing so, I was quite surprised to notice something that had completely escaped my notice before.  Which is, DRACULA'S DAUGHTER (1936) has an extraordinary amount of things in common with A.D. 1972.

Both films, the "Chelsea" section of London is mentioned repeatedly.  Both have an older Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloan, Peter Cushing) talking with THE POLICE, and trying to explain to them about the existence of VAMPIRES.  This is absolutely not something from Stoker's novel, wherein all the characters do whatever they can to avoid the police and any messy explanations that nobody would ever believe.  Fortunately, Inspector Murray (Michael Coles) is a HELL of a lot more intelligent, reasonable, and open-minded than Sir Basil Humphrey (Gilbert Emery) was.  Humphrey was INTENSELY-annoying as a character; Murray is such a sensible character, he came back for the sequel!

Both DAUGHTER and A.D. 1972, oddly enough, have a scene early in their stories that takes place at a party being held in some rich person's house.  Of course, in DAUGHTER, it was where Countess Zeleska got to meet psychiatrist Jeffrey Garth (Otto Kruger), who perhaps is the better counterpart to Murray, while in A.D. 1972 it's merely a party to show off the over-aged "cool kids" intruding on a private party because a rock band they like happens to be playing there.  If anything, the rock party is this film's "nicer" equivalent to the BROTHEL seen in TASTE...

The final act of both films has the "nice" girl kidnapped and put INTO A TRANCE by the vampire. What are the odds? In DAUGHTER, Janet Blake (Margueritte Churchill) is mostly "bait" to lure Jeffrey, while in A.D. 1972, although Dracula wants to destroy Van Helsing, his grand-daughter, Jessica Van Helsing (Stephanie Beachum) is part of his revenge, as he intends to make her a vampire like himself, a situation no doubt inspired by that with Mina Harker in the novel.

Something else I had NEVER noticed before, a minor point, is how Johnny knocks over a porcelain statue, shattering it into a dozen tiny pieces.  The way it was perched right on the edge of that table, and the shot of it hitting the floor and breaking, was almost IDENTICAL to a bit in the 1940 Hitchcock film REBECCA-- which, crazy enough, I re-watched the SAME weekend as I did A.D. 1972!  Again-- what are the odds??

Crazy enough, I'd been watching this film for over 40 years before I suddenly found out that the 2nd song performed by Stoneground, "Alligator Man", was a cover version of a 1962 country song by Jimmy C. Newman.  The 2 recordings are shockingly different, it really is a perfect example of someone taking an existing song and "making it there own".

Doing a search online, I was also rather surprised to learn that the singer, Sal Valentino, whose wild, "crazed" eyes almost outdo those of Leon Russell, had earlier been the lead singer in a group called The Beau Brummels, very mid-60s "British Invasion" in style.  You'd almost never have guessed it was the same guy.

Mike Vickers was a member of Manfred Mann, and his score, which some feel is out of place, is one of the most exciting and memorable things about the entire film.  When they weren't doing silly pop tunes, Manfred Mann's main interest was JAZZ, and Vickers muct have really loved the chance to do something like this.

I wanted to mention the 2 police characters in here.  Michael Coles, who played Inspector Murray, apart from this and its sequel, was also in DR. WHO AND THE DALEKS (I somehow never realized this).  I've also seen him in a SAINT, an AVENGERS, a RANDALL AND HOPKIRK (DECEASED), and a PROTECTORS. I was rather surprised to find out he passed away in 2005 at only 70.  Seems too young. 

On the other hand, his distinctive-looking sidekick, the un-named Detective Sergeant, was played by David Andrews, who in his career split his time between acting (mostly earlier) and directing (mostly later).  A.D. 1972 was one of his last acting jobs, and, as it happens, I've only ever seen him in 2 other things-- both quite recently, thanks to DVDs!  He was in the 1st-season AVENGERS episode "The Frighteners" (one of the very few still known to exist!), and, in the 1965 Douglas Wilmer SHERLOCK HOLMES episode, "The Red-Headed League", as "Vincent Spaulding"-- in reality, "John Clay", the master criminal!  This amazed me to find out, as, under his rectangular glasses, Andrews is almost unrecognizable in A.D. 1972-- unless you hear his very-distinct ACCENT!  Seems almost a shame he gave up acting.  Born in 1935, he's STILL around at 87!

It's wonderful to finally have this (and all the others) on Blu-Ray disc.  The last several in a row, RISEN, TASTE, SCARS, A.D. 1972 and SATANIC RITES, all have what I would describe as "PERFECT" picture & sound.  As did BRIDES and KISS.  I only wish the Warner Archives discs had audio commentaries and other features like the Shout Factory discs do.  Then again, I wish Shout Factory wasn't doing this "CHEAP" thing with the disc authoring problem.  Also, it'd be really nice if somebody went back and did FAR-BETTER restorations of HORROR and PRINCE, so you could actually SEE what you were looking at while watching.  Both are WAYYYYY too dark.

[profh0011]

Reportedly, Christopher Lee was even more annoyed than usual when he heard the alleged proposed "working title" of Hammer's latest atrocity... DRACULA IS DEAD AND WELL AND LIVING IN LONDON.  This was reported in Famous Monsters magazine, but, apparently, was never REALLY seriously considered as the title.  Instead, they went with THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA.  At least, until Warner Brothers was STUPID enough to decide not to distribute it in America AT ALL.  5 years later, somehow, Milton Subotsky and his new company Dynamite Entertainment (no relation whatsoever to the recent NJ comic-book publisher) picked it up for distribution and put it out under the completely-absurd title of COUNT DRACULA AND HIS VAMPIRE BRIDE.  The US poster, with a terrible painting of Dracula that looks nothing like Christopher Lee, has a tagline on it that reads, "The king of the undead marries the queen of the zombies".  This has NOTHING to do with the plot at all!  Although Dracula gets Jessica on an altar in a trance for the 2nd movie in a row (what are the odds?) she's in no way a "queen of the zombies", and as for "vampire brides", there were no less than 6 of them in this film, really trying to make up for their only being 1 in the 1958 alleged adaptation of Stoker's novel.

I've also read the film was cut in the UK, and cut perhaps even more in the US.  I can't say, it's been 44 YEARS since I saw it with my parents at the Coronet Theatre in Haddonfield.  However, comparing my 41-year-old self-recorded videotape (made off of Philly's Channel 3 and their "Saturday Night Dead" show) to the brand-new BLU-RAY, I find there was 3 MINUTES missing (not 4 as listed on the IMDB).  This involved mostly all the nudity of the blonde girl on the altar, any nudity in the basement, blood from stakes being driven thru the vampire girls, and the like.

Most of the movie takes place (at least we see the exterior of) a place called "Pellham House". Looking it up, I see in reality, it's a house called High Canons, in Buckettsland Lane, Well End, Hertfordshire.  I've seen it in at least 4 films that I can recall, the others being THE DEVIL RIDES OUT (Mocata's house), a PROTECTORS episode, and a Diana Rigg AVENGERS, "Dead Man's Treasure".  The IMDB actually has a list of some 49 different films it's appeared in, quite a few others I've seen (but don't remember it being in).  Among them, crazy enough, are 3 other AVENGERS episodes, but, they don't have "Dead Man's Treasure" listed.  Hmm!

It seems some obscure, tiny department of British Intelligence (perhaps England's answer to "Control" on GET SMART ?) got wind that several high-ranking people were hanging out at this place regularly, so they tried to infiltrate a man there, who got caught and tortured before escaping in a hail of bullets, before passing on what he knew and they dying.  One of the people at the house, taking part in what appears to be a Satanic Ritual (the vibe really is that this is a sequel to THE DEVIL RIDES OUT, the same way THE DUNWICH HORROR is a sequel to Corman's THE HAUNTED PALACE) is the government minister in charge of said tiny department.  So, to avoid losing their jobs-- or worse-- they recruit "Inspector Murray" (Michael Coles) who's moved up to "Special Branch", and he in turn takes their information to-- who else? --Lorrimer Van Helsing!

And so, for the 2nd Hammer Dracula film in a row, PETER CUSHING completely steals the movie, making an utter farce of Christopher Lee getting top billing (and probably far more money for far less work and screen-time). A lot of people dismiss the 2 "modern-day" Hammer Draculas, but both are among my TOP FAVORITES.  How could they not be?  They've actually got REAL PLOTS, and they've actually got PETER CUSHING.  Plus, the previous one had CAROLINE MUNRO (hubba hubba!), and this one's got JOANNA LUMLEY!

Lorrimer recognizes one of the men involved in whatever it is, is an old friend of his, Professor Julian Keeley, a specialist in blood diseases and the like.  So, paying him a visit, we get a sort-of "reunion" of Cushing with FREDDIE JONES, from FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED.  And whatta ya know?  Jones just about STEALS the movie from Cushing!!  Man, it takes a special kind of actor to be able to do that.  It starts with, "Evil RULES, you know...", moves on to "The Supreme being is THE DEVIL" and goes on from there.

Meanwhile, the girl from the security office is brutally kidnapped in broad daylight, and wakes up to be assaulted by COUNT DRACULA, who has his way with her without saying a single word.  Nice pay if you can get it.

Lorrimer barely escapes getting killed while Keeley winds up hanging from the ceiling.  Murray & Torrence (William Franklyn) pay a visit to Pellham House, while Jessica, who refuses to STAY IN THE CAR, sneaks into the basement and almost becomes the victim of no less than 5 vampire girls.  I know Lorrimer said she had a "keen scientist's mind" and knows "more about his work" than he does, but I do really find it difficult to believe this is the same girl Stephanie Beachum played in the previous film.  They wanted Beachum back, but apparently, she was making AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS for Amicus at the time.  At least having the same actress might have made this shocking change in personality more acceptable, but here it feels like Lorrimer's got 2 very different grand-daughters BOTH named Jessica.

Some people complain about various things in these movies, well, I have basically ONE real problem with Don Houghton's scripts, and it's something that turns up in BOTH films.  In A.D. 1972, Van Helsing tells Murray to "STAY AWAY" from Saint Barthoff's Church, insisting he'll "never find anything".  This goes completely against all common sense with regard to vampires.  If you want to search a vampire's hideout, the ONLY safe time to do it is in the DAYTIME.  Yet he insists on going in alone, at sundown, and tells Murray to give him an hour before following.  Which makes NO SENSE.

So here, in SATANIC RITES, Van Helsing insists that if the police had raided Pellham House, "by the time they got there" they would have found nothing.  However, the entire CLIMAX of the film TOTALLY DISPUTES this.  All 5 vampire girls are STILL in the basement-- the Satanic altar is still set up in the drawing room-- and as it turns out, the Chinese woman running the house, is ALSO a vampire, bringing the number of vampire girls up to 6!

You wonder how Lorrimer managed to destroy Dracula TWICE in these films!

Another non-sensical thing is, after Lorrimer says to stay away from Pellham House, both Torrence & Matthews (Richard Vernon, seen in such films as A HARD DAY'S NIGHT, GOLDFINGER and THE TOMB OF LIEGEIA) wind up killed by the biker-sniper, and both Murray & Jessica are captured! NONE of which would have happened, if Murray had called n the Special Branch to RAID the damned house in the first place!  This is BEYOND incompetence, bordering on SUICIDAL behavior on the part of the good guys.

Lorrimer, meanwhile, in the most amusing part of the film, goes to the skyscraper office building built on the site of St. Barthoff's, to see "D.D. Denham", the ring-leader who apparently doesn't show up when photographed.  And, hiding in the shadows (but only barely, it's pretty clear who's sitting behind the desk on the Blu-Ray) is a guy doing an Eastern-European accent.  I found it hilarious that Christopher Lee was paying tribute to BELA LUGOSI for that brief scene, and wondered how the entire Hammer Dracula series might have been if he'd done a Transylvanian accent from the beginning in 1958?

More incompetence is at hand, as after taking the time to melt down a silver dagger to create a silver bullet, Lorrimer takes SO MUCH TIME taking aim that his pistol is knocked out of his hand before he can shoot Dracula at close range.  I tell you, this hero didn't DESERVE to win in this film.

Then again, neither did the villain.  We learn that after the Chinese girl (apparently) ressurected him, he used his hypnotic power to enslave this group of leaders, conning them into believing they were going to stage a coup, taking over the government, and use the threat of a new strain of BLACK DEATH PLAGUE virus.  But in reality, he's sick of it all (as was Chris Lee, heehee), and wants to end it-- and, like most sociopaths, he wants to take EVERYBODY else with him.  Just as he's about to put the bite on Jessica (for the 2nd film in a row), one of his servants, shocked on finding out he's intended to be a PLAGUE CARRIER, distracts him, so Dracula wills him to shatter the testube in his hand.  The others make a run for it, but as Dracula confronts Lorrimer, the ceiling explodes.

It seems Murray got into this intensely-BRUTAL fight with one of the biker guys upstairs, causing the biker to get ELECTROCUTED, and the security equipment exploded-- setting the whole house on fire.  Watching this again after all these years, I yelled at my TV, "It's Roger Corman time!"  He had several POE films end with a house set on fire, where it didn't happen in the original Poe stories.  Now finding himself in a situation similar to the ending of FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED (how about that?), Lorrimer tosses a chair thru a window, then jumps to safety.

You know, NONE of that would have happened if they'd just KILLED Murray along with the other 2 guys.  TSK!

I did like when Murray found Jessica, and confirmed that she was still alive, said to himself, "Please, God..."  In the midst of all this, it seems he was falling for her.  Almost a shame we never got to see either of them again after this film.

This whole last sequence is the BEST and MOST exciting part of the film.  The problem is... we still have about 5 minutes to go.  Lorrimer finds Hawthorn Trees growing on the property, tricks Dracula into stumbling into one, STAKES him, then watches him slowly disintegrate, finally picking up Dracula's ring at the very end.  And the problem is... it all seems to happen in SLOW motion.  It kinda crawls to an end... almost the way the Bela Lugosi film did, come to think of it.

John Cacavas supplies a really MOODY and BEAUTIFUL music score... but after Mike Vickers, it's almost TOO subdued and low-key.

A.D. 1972 felt on every score like a "grand finale" of the series.  Yet, Hammer planned to do a follow-up even before it was released, maybe even before it was finished.  To justify this, SATANIC RITES has a story that is MUCH-BIGGER in scope.  As Lorrimer himself says, "It's not just personal revenge this time."  NO KIDDING.  But to fit into the same time-slot, its more-complex plot is streamlined beyond belief, resulting in a film that, structurally, is actually far-SIMPLER in its telling.  On repeat viewings (and I've lost count of how many times I've seen it now), it's amazing how "simple" the film itself is, considering the story it's trying to tell.

It's just a shame that it doesn't FEEL as thrilling, as exciting, as tense, as a "grand finale" should.  Is it possible at all they hoped to do a 3rd modern-day story?  Hard to imagine.  Somehow, with the market being SWAMPED with far too many horror films, vampire films and Dracula films, A.D. 1972 did disappointing business in America, and so Warners insanely decided not to even bother putting SATANIC RITES out in America at all.  Which is criminal, as I feel it's a VASTLY-better film than at least HALF of the Hammer Dracula sequels.

[profh0011]

The 7 Brothers meet
DRACULA and the ARMY of KUNG-FU ZOMBIES, in...

THE LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES (1974)

Without a doubt, absolutely, positively, unquestionably, the single most BAT-SHIT INSANE movie Hammer Films ever made!

Lawrence Van Helsing (Peter Cushing, who else?) is travelling the world, doing research in Chung King, China, when he's invited to take part in an expedition to a remote village somewhere in the mountains, in order to free them from the very vampires he's heard a legend about.  "Meanwhile" (more or less), Kah, the evil high priest of the vampire cult, has travelled to Transylvania seeking help from the lord of vampires himself, COUNT DRACULA.  And gets more than he bargained for, as Dracula, after first dismissing Kah, decides to POSSESS his body and take charge of the Chinese vampires himself.

This, basically, is what you get if you cross THE SEVEN SAMURAI, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, and THE BIG BOSS.  Sort of.  Warners wanted more Dracula, Hammer teamed with the Shaw Brothers, the resulting film is totally-nuts but mesmerizing-- but then Warners, at the last minute, decided NOT to release the film in America AT ALL.  Those stupid BASTARDS!!

Somehow, Milton Subotsky got ahold of this 5 years later, totally butchered it and re-edited it into complete incoherence, and released it as THE 7 BROTHERS MEET DRACULA.  Fortunately (?), when Philly's SATURDAY NIGHT DEAD ran it after 1 in the morning, they ran the original version instead, and, if my stop-watch timing is correct, only about 1 minute got cut from its one hour twenty-nine minute run-time.  However, as was to be expected from trying to tape something off a local channel, it was in fullscreen, so HALF the visuals and HALF the action scenes can't be seen or appreciated; the picture and sound are fuzzy, the colors are faded, and there's "ghosts" due to a bad antenna signal.  And I've been putting up with this CRAPPY copy for 41 YEARS! 

Not anymore!  Friday I watched the 2019 Shout Factory Blu-Ray, which is UNCUT, in WIDESCREEN, CRYSTAL-CLEAR picture and sound all the way through.  Simply-- the movie is STUNNING to look at!  Now let me see if I can hit the highs and the lows...

The opening scene, in the underground crypt inside Dracula's castle, I feel is the single best-looking such crypt in the entire Hammer Dracula series.  The long, curving stairway, the jagged stone archway, the large stone sarcophagus, all really cool design work.  The martial-arts action scenes are very impressively choreographed, and far more impressive and coherent when seen in widescreen.  (I really, really need to get a widescreen DVD of ENTER THE DRAGON sometime soon.)  James Bernard returns for one more stab at a Dracula score, and for the most part, doesn't disappoint, and is as loud, booming, in-your-face and over-the-top as always.  The story is relatively simple and straight-forward, and doesn't outstay its welcome.  And, amazingly, Peter Cushing gets physically involved in some of the fight scenes at the climax!  Really impressive for such a old, skinny guy!

HOWEVER... I'm afraid, even in this visually stunning, eye-popping, complete version, this is never gonna be one of my favorites, despite Peter Cushing.  Robin Stewart as Leyland starts out so wimpy, it's surprising when, as the story progresses, he turns out to actually be handy when the action erupts.  All the same, I found myself wishing they'd gotten Ian Ogilvy instead.  Julie Ege is pretty, but with her thick accent, I kept thinking it might have been better if they'd cast Ingrid Pitt instead.  And then there's John Forbes-Robertson.  He's not bad near the end (although he gets killed way too easily after such a long build-up), but at the beginning, all I could think of was, somebody was re-using the bad make-up job from SCARS.  I know Christopher Lee refused to do this, but, there are so many different "Dracula" actors from that period who could have been far more-impressive than him-- including Charles MacCauley, Francis Lederer, Louis Jourdan, George Hamilton, or Frank Langella.  I mean, David DeKyser was more impressive, and it's only his VOICE in the picture!

There's a cool shot early-on where Dracula rises from his coffin, which seems to have inspired a shot in the Mel Brooks version (except, without Dracula hitting his head as he does it).  I'm wondering if there was any other film where they did that-- have a stiff figure actually rise, his feet staying in place, as his head and shoulders rotates upward.

When Vanessa offers to finance the expedition, on one condition-- that she goes along-- and Van Helsing vehemently objects, it reminds me of a near-identical scene in Columbia's JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH (1959) with James Mason's Professor Lindenbrook objecting to Carla Goteberg (Arlene Dahl), who winds up going along anyway.

About two-thirds in, when the expedition is resting in the cave, and Van Helsing is explaining to the group exactly what vampires are, and how they may be fought and destroyed, it reminded me of 2 other near-identical scenes with Peter Cushing as a scientist in a savage landscape-- DR. WHO AND THE DALEKS, and AT THE EARTH'S CORE!

Just about one-third into the film, the expedition starts, and for about 2 minutes, we see them travelling in the wilderness, before the Tong leader's henchman attack, and Bernard's score explodes.  But before that, there's no music at all, and I think it really slows down the film almost painfully.  To make up for it, when I watched my tape the other night, during that scene, I filled in the gap by humming Elmer Bernstein's "MAGNIFICENT SEVEN" theme.  What could possibly have been more appropriate right then?  The western version of the story NEVER slows down, and Bernstein's music is a huge part of that.

Now, apart from pacing and some casting, there's ONE other thing that bothers me about this story-- and it involves time passage and continuity logic.  According to a bit of on-screen text, the prologue takes place in 1805.  The rest of the film takes place in 1905.  But HOW can this be?  Are we really supposed to believe that Dracula went to China in 1805 and stayed there for 100 years before being abruptly destroyed by Van Helsing at the end of this film?  This contradicts the fact that Van Helsing had confronted and destroyed Dracula, at some unspecified earlier point. 

Back at the long-gone IMDB message boards, there was a thread where some fans discussed the continuity (or lack thereof) in the Hammer Dracula series.  I recall one fan suggesting there must be 2 different Van Helsings, perhaps twin brothers, to explain this film. But it was also brought up that A.D. 1972's prologue takes place in 1872.  I think the easiest way to work this out, is to simply IGNORE the stated dates, and, in the case of this film, specifically, IGNORE the "1805" date as a blatent ERROR.

Simply, the whole thing makes more sense if we figure that at some point, Van Helsing destroyed Dracula, who,many years later, was visited by Kah, then went to China posing as Kah, and some time after that, had his fatal run-in with Van Helsing.  It may not reconcile this film with any of the others, but, at least, it reconciles this film WITH ITSELF!

Meanwhile... in the prologue, Dracula suggests he's somehow "trapped" in his mausoleum. How can THAT be-- when Kah just walks right in?  And then, the possessed Kah walks right out?  There's no explanation!

Perhaps what might help reconcile this film with the others, is if we go with the DARK SHADOWS Barnabas time-travel method.  That is, when Dracula possessed Kah, only his spirit went to China, but his actual body remained in Transylvania (or wherever it is in the Hammer universe).  I could even see this film taking place in the same continuity as SCARS.  Picture this idea:  in LEGEND, Dracula has an underground crypt he or anyone can walk in or out of.  But in SCARS, he's sealed up his crypt, so only HE can get in or out (without climbing down or up a rope to get to the window).

One final bit:  how is it, that in (supposedly) 100 years, NOBODY in the village ever thought to walk to the vampire temple and BURN IT to the ground during daylight hours?  This is basic "vampire hunting 101"!

[profh0011]

Okay, MY mistake... I don't know if I read something erroneous, or mis-remembered... but it seems it was Max Rosenberg who got his hands on the last 2 Hammer Draculas and released them 5 years apiece after they came out in England, with this one being BUTCHERED beyond all sense or belief.

I still have to watch "THE 7 BROTHERS MEET DRACULA" on the Blu-Ray.

Strangely-- and I wonder why I KEEP running across stuff like this-- in the audio commentary, there's a story that COMPLETELY contradicts a story I read at least 15 YEARS ago, in a book about Amicus Films. In there, it was said the name of company means "friend", because Amicus was formed by a HANDSHAKE between Max Rosenberg & Milton Subotsky. Later, after "AT THE EARTH'S CORE", Subotsky got tired of their new "epic" direction (which, it turns out, was making them a PILE of money-- "THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT" was allegedly their BIGGEST money-maker ever, which I never knew for decades), they disolved the company, without lawyers, with a handshake. I thought it was a wonderful story.

Well in the audio commentary I just heard TONIGHT, instead, I hear the company disolved in a "very bitter legal battle". WHAT??

How the HELL do we keep getting such totally-conflicting stories about movie history like this?
It reminds me of the stories about the 1979 & 1980 FLASH GORDON films (and how they're related)... or what went on between RKO Pictures and author Leslie Charteris. I can't shake the feeling somebody is MAKING THINGS UP lately, trying to tell a more "controversial" story than things I read many years earlier.

[profh0011]

I was reminded last night... the "Dracula rising from the coffin" scene was inspired by the one in "NOSFERATU" (1922)!!! There, it takes place on board the ship.

So that makes at least 3 films it was used in. I wonder if there were any more?

[profh0011]

Today's acquisition:

TAJEMSTVI HRADU V KARPATECH
(The Mysterious Castle In The Carpathians)
(1981 / 2016 Region 2 DVD from The Czech Republic)

Since getting my Region-Free DVD player, so far I've gotten Region 2 discs from England, Italy, France, and now The Czech Republic! I thought people here might appreciate this kind of thing.

This is-- get this-- a HORROR-COMEDY based on an 1892 novel by Jules Verne-- "Le Château des Carpathes" (The Carpathian Castle). Apparently, the story has certain similarities with Bram Stoker's "Dracula"-- but came out several years earlier. I can't wait to see it!

[profh0011]

ELVIRA'S HAUNTED HILLS (2001)

Okay, I have now watched "ELVIRA'S HAUNTED HILLS" for the first time. While the 1st movie got a terrible review at some site (but I loved it, so, what did that guy know) and this one got multiple reviews saying "It's not as good as the first one"), I wasn't gonna let that sway me.

This is a very different movie. But it is also a very FAMILAR movie. I read it was designed to be a "tribute" to Roger Corman's POE films. THEY WEREN'T KIDDING!!! This is almost like a Mel Brooks version of Corman's POE, only on a much-smaller budget.

I was amazed at the structure of this story. They managed to slip in very obvious tributes, in some cases just little bits, to ALL 8 of Corman's films!! One scene at the climax has bits of 3 films going on SIMULTANEOUSLY. When I saw that, I thought, "Hey, this is like something I wrote once."

There's also, to my eyes, at least one tip to Brooks (he loved including a MUSICAL NUMBER in each of his films), and, right at the end, a BOND film. (LIVE AND LET DIE-- that figures, right?)

This is also the MOST violent "Pit and the Pendulum" I have ever seen. And this is a COMEDY!

So, it really figures, in a twisted way, that I should get this now. A while back, the very first DRACULA I got on DVD was Mel Brooks' film. Right now, I'm planning to upgrade all my Corman POE films to Blu-Ray this year... and I wind up getting this one FIRST.

I must also mention this film has one of the WEIRDEST bits in it I've ever seen in a American comedy. One of the characters is DUBBED-- and the lip movements doesn't match the words. So it's like you're watching a foreign film... only, IT ISN'T. Well, except that it was filmed on location in RUMANIA.

The film is dedicated to VINCENT PRICE. But it's also "in memory of Phil Hartman". That's interesting. It makes me think he might have been in line to play one of the main parts in here... if he'd still been around when it got made.

[The Australian Panther]

Came across this movie, 'Frankenstein 1970' which was shot in 1958. I don't have a copy, but I could have but having seen the trailer I'm not too enthusiastic about it.

Clip HD | Frankenstein | Warner Archive
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LdpBq_KwD4

Joe Dante on FRANKENSTEIN 1970
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HCTUBHwVn8

[profh0011]

"1958"

Might make an appropriate double-bill with THE RETURN OF DRACULA (1958), which starred Czechoslovakian actor Francis Lederer.

[profh0011]

Tonight on Blu-Ray:
"THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER" (1960)

Well, I have 3 copies of this now. Back in the 80s, I managed to tape all 8 Roger Corman films off local commercial stations. You know what that means. "FULLSCREEN"-- fuzzy-as-hell-- faded-- and possibly cut (but I'll be checking on that as I go).

In the early-mid 2000s, I managed to upgrade 5 of those 8 off of TCM. Crystal-clear, uncut, WIDESCREEN. Wow. When I do upgrades, I really do 'em. Unfortunately, my cable got cut off before they ever ran the other 3, so, I've still been putting up with really LOUSY copies of those... BUT NOT FOR MUCH LONGER! (And the state of my current used VCR is such that it makes me want to upgrade more stuff as quick as I can manage it.)

I got into the habit of watching all 8 (plus whatever extra films I was in a mood for) about once a year for quite a while there. But when I started buying DVDs and Blu-Rays, I decided to take a nice long break, until I could upgrade all 8 of the films. During that time, I've watched a whole year of nothing but comedies on Friday night... another year of science-fiction films... half a year of "swordfighting" films... several months of my favorite comedies again... and, this past year, a massive marathon of films from the 1920s, 1930s and (so far) 1940s. That's really been fun, as I've been combining horror, crime, adventure, fantasy-- all kinds of stuff, in (more or less) chronological order. Heck, just last weekend I watched JESSE JAMES with Tyrone Power & Henry Fonda... and FANTASIA.

But as of Saturday (it was gonna be Friday, but we had non-stop rain... and, it was SUNNY the next day!) I got my hands on 4 out of the 8 Corman POE films (all in one box), and am planning to order the remaining 4 (if I can help it) over the next 3 weeks!!! (2 of them are only sold separately.) It felt like it took me forever to get all the Hammer DRACULA films, so I really wanna get these Corman films out of the way as quick as I can.

The Shout Factory restoration of USHER looks "perfect". Nothing too bright or too dark, no visual or audio damage. And how about these extras? 3 audio commentaries (3!!!), a Vincent Price interview, 2 trailers, a photo gallery, and an "Overture" (which, fortunately, is on a separate track, so you can hit the "advance" button and skip over it if you choose-- I did).

I can tell these are gonna keep me busy for some time.

[profh0011]

Tonight on Blu-Ray:
"PIT AND THE PENDULUM" (1961)

This could be sub-titled, "Edgar Allan Poe's Greatest Hits". It's a murder mystery (shades of Dupin, or, "LAURA"), it involves a man terrified that he may have buried his wife alive ("Usher"), one of the characters is named "Barnard" ("Arthur Gordon Pym"), there's a shot of someone being bricked up alive ("Amontillado"), oh, and the story is a SEQUEL to "The Pit And The Pendulum" whose main character is the SON of a member of The Spanish Inquisition.

My own personal nick-name for the film has long been... "HOUSE OF USHER 2". It opens with someone making a long journey to visit a huge house to inquire about a woman, the owner of the house is frail and nervous and haunted (in fact, "Nicholas Medina" is MORE like Poe's "Roderick Usher" than Vincent Price was in the previous film!), and halfway thru we find Elisabeth has been buried alive BY ACCIDENT (in the previous film, Madeline was buried alive DELIBERATELY). While the film works fine on its own, there's an added kick to viewing "USHER" and "PENDULUM" back-to-back, as "PENDULUM" FEELS like a sequel, even though it's not. It also LOOKS like it cost 10 TIMES the amount of money to make as the 1st one.

Funny thing... Antony Carbone's "Dr. Leoni" seems vaguely inspired by the un-named doctor in Poe's "Usher", who the narrator said looked "sinister". He did not appear in Corman's film, but here, he becomes one of the film's 2 villains! I always find it hilarious that he falls to his death, and Price doesn't even notice it... and, when others see him, NOBODY expresses any concern that HE's dead!

I remember many years ago thinking Corman seemed to have made a mistake casting 3 actors who looked vaguely similar... UNTIL Carbone got killed, and suddenly, Price thought John Kerr WAS Carbone! Their similar looks then became part of the plot. (If the butler had walked in right then, HE would have gotten strapped down on that slab instead.)

It's also funny that Francis Barnard, who came to find out what happened to his sister, NEVER really finds out the truth by the end-- nor, does anyone else who's still alive by the time the credits roll. He TOLD Nicholas his sister was "a strong-willed woman, not suceptible to morbid impressions" (or something like that). He was RIGHT! HE knew Elisabeth better than her HUSBAND did. (But still, not good enough.)

This is, again, the 3rd copy I've had of this film, following a wretched local commercial channel broadcast, and a stunning TCM showing almost 20 years ago. I'd say the Shout Factory disc is ALMOST "perfect". Crystal-clear picture, slightly-HISSY sound which comes in and out depending on how much music is being played.

The disc comes with 2 audio commentaries, 1 rough-looking trailer, an image gallery, and the "rare" TV prologue (that actually has nothing to do with the rest of the story).

Among its various influences, something I NEVER noticed... was the bit about someone looking for their sister, followed by someone else going insane, beliving they're their own PARENT and dressing up like them... came from PSYCHO !!! How about that? Man, that's how you borrow something and "make it your own".

I always liked Luana Anders in this. 2 years later, she played a somewhat-similar character, a very sensitive woman, in THE OUTER LIMITS episode "The Guests", one of the 2 "gothic horror"/"haunted house" episodes on that show.

[profh0011]

Some things I found out in the last 2 days, apparently, "BLACK NARCISSUS" (1947) with Deborah Kerr had a huge influence on the visual style, action & camerawork of the climax of Corman's "HOUSE OF USHER". Meanwhile, Richard Matheson borrowed a WHOLE hell of a lot from "LES DIABOLIQUES" (1955) when he wrote the screenplay for "PIT AND THE PENDULUM".

I've just added both films to my wanted list!

[profh0011]

THE PREMATURE BURIAL   (1962)
"House Of Usher 3" / Variations On A Theme   (7 of 10)

In both the US and UK, this film has been ignored in box sets because it doesn't have Vincent Price in it. That's a shame, because it's one one of my very favorite Ray Milland films!

**********SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!**********
This is NOT one of my normal reviews. Read no further if you haven't seen the movie already. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Department of unmittigated nerve: once past the prologue where a doctor pays 2 grave-robbers to dig up a corpse (illegally, I have to guess) for medical research, the story begins-- for the 3RD MOVIE IN A ROW-- with someone arriving at a huge mansion, concerned about a loved one, only to have someone try to turn them away. If you compare this opening to "HOUSE OF USHER", then Emily Gault (Hazel Court) is the "Phillip Winthrop" role; Kate Carrell (Heather Angel) is the "Roderick Usher" of the story; and Guy Carell (Ray Milland) is the "Madeline Usher" this time around! How's that for gender-swapping, decades before it became popular in Hollywood?

Emily is in love with Guy and wants to marry him, but his older sister Kate insists he is SICK and does not want to see her. Of course, beyond the opening, things take quite a different path. Unlike Madeline, who became convinced she was sick when she wasn't due to the influence of her older brother, here, Guy has convinced HIMSELF he's doomed to suffer from catalypsy, and will probably wind up buried alive, because he believes his father died that way. (This is the 3rd movie in a row that mental malady features.) Unlike Roderick, Kate INSISTS it's all in his mind... but there seems to be hints something else is going on.

Guy takes Emily down to the crypt (another scene similar to ones in both "USHER" and "PENDULUM"), but after, succumbs to her pressures and agrees to marry her after all. But then weird stuff starts to happen, like he repeatedly hears someone whistling "Molly Malone" (as the grave-robbers did at the beginning), his pet Collie is struck by lightning and appears dead but recovers, he seems haunted by the 2 grave-robbers which Emily insists she neither saw or heard.

Amidst this, one sequence straight out of Poe's original story involved Guy designing a fantastic mausoleum for himself with MULTIPLE escape devices, on the odd chance he actually is buried alive. This is a point in the story where my attitude varies drastically from the characters in the story. Both Emily & family friend Miles (who's loved Emily for years but was too poor to propose) insist he "must" destroy the "evil" building. I, on the other hand, found myself thinking, if I'd been there, I'd have been laughing with delight, telling Guy what a BRILLIANT design it was, and that he should patent it and license the design out. He could have made a TON of money selling them to other people with his peculiar psychological problem.

Instead, he stupidly dynamites it, and soon after, is SHOCKED into a catalyptic fit because SOMEBODY broke into his father's crypt and moved the body to make it LOOK like he'd been buried alive. (Shades of Elizabeth's corpse in "PENDULUM"-- I just heard in an audio commentary that that was Nicholas Medina's MOTHER, not his WIFE, in that coffin!)

And so Guy is buried alive... Emily tells Miles she "made a mistake" and that it "may not be too late for them"... and Emily's father has the grave-robbers dig up HIS OWN SON-IN-LAW.

And THAT's where the BEST DAMNED part of the movie begins!!!! It was such a slow boil, but it's not until 65 minutes in that you find out, you've been watching a MURDER MYSTERY all this time, and didn't even know it! In fact-- the NERVE of some people-- this movie has the SAME PLOT as "PENDULUM"-- except, it's very well disguised!!

In "PENDULUM", Elisabeth faked her own death, and conspired with her lover Dr. Leoni, to drive Nicholas insane to get her hands on his money. In "BURIAL", Emily hired the grave-robbers and desecrated a dead man's crypt to drive Guy into a catalyptic fit-- so he'd wind up DEAD without her ever having to touch him, so she'd get his money and then be able to marry Miles, who knew nothing about it!

Can you say... "variations on a theme"

But it GOES WRONG. In "PENDULUM", Nicholas, having gone insane, takes on the persona of his evil FATHER (just as "Norman Bates" took on the persona of his evil MOTHER in "PSYCHO" the year before!!) and kills Leoni and Elisabeth, and almost Phillip & Maximiliian.

In "BURIAL", Guy kills BOTH grave-robbers (who saved his life!-- heeheehee) AND his father-in-law (who apparently knew NOTHING about his daughter's schemes) before then going after his UNFAITHFUL WIFE. Every time I watch the climax, I have the biggest SMILE on my face when he dumps her into the open grave (shades of Chris Lee in "HORROR OF DRACULA") while she tries to "explain"... yeah, right. When she cries out, "NOT THAT!" he replies-- "YES-- THAT!", and begins shovelling dirt on top of her. I love it.

Then Miles shows up and tries to reason with him (that won't work) and tries to stop him (and almost gets KILLED for it) before Kate SHOOTS her brother in the back. When I watched the crystal-clear widescreen print of this on my brand-new Blu-Ray, it suddenly hit me, this was the 3rd time in 3 films someone pulled a gun out (shades of Dupin in "Murders In The Rue Morgue"). In "USHER", Roderick pulled one out to defend himself against Madeline-- but then dropped it in fear the moment she arrived. In "PENDULUM", Nicholas pulled one out to kill himself, but Catherine stopped him. In "BURIAL", Kate pulled one out, and FINALLY somebody got shot and killed. It's like a sign a "trilogy" is coming to a close.

But what a tragedy. Kate had to explain it all to Miles, who couldn't believe Emily had spent so much time planning to murder her husband for his money. I wonder. Kate saved Miles, would she be charged with killing her brother? Guy killed 4 PEOPLE-- if Kate hadn't killed HIM, would HE be charged with murder, since he had already been declared DEAD by 2 separate doctors?? Who can say?

One thing I can't buy is, they repeatedly have shots of the castle turrets from "PENDULUM" in "BURIAL", even though, the Carrell Mansion in "BURIAL" looks NOTHING whatsoever like the Medina Castle in the previous film. It's a little distracting, especially since one of my interests is architecture.

A year before Corman's film, the THRILLER anthology tv series did their own episode of "The Premature Burial". It's one of the very few where host Boris Karloff played one of the characters in the story. I've only seen it once (on Youtube, it's apparently available on disc with the complete TV season), and it's interesting to note both its similarities and differences with the Charles Beaumont movie story. Was Beaumont influenced by the TV version? If you've seen both, it seems impossible for him NOT to have been!

[profh0011]

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (1928)
A Masterpiece of Phantasmagoric Surrealism! (8 of 10)

Roderick Usher's wife Madeline is dying from an unknown illness, and begs his old friend Allan to visit him. The family doctor has been unable to diagnose what the problem is, but every time Roderick works on the portrait of his wife, it seems to come to life more and more, while she is drained of it.

Anyone familiar with Edgar Allan Poe's works can plainly see that this fascinating film (like many classics old and new) has taken many liberties and in particular is combining together elements of both "The Fall Of The House Of Usher" and "The Oval Portrait". Hence, why Madeline has become Roderick's wife rather than his sister. It's often fascinating to watch this kind of "adaptation", where taking 2 or more stories can both add and detract from the source material at the same time. But, as so many previous reviewers have noted, there's a LOT more going on here!

Stylistically, this is one of the most bizarre, MESMERIZING silent films I've ever seen! The design work, the camera angles, superimposed multiple images, the camera shaking, quit-cut edits-- a full gamut that is so all-encompasing it makes the 1922 NOSFERATU seem like amateur hour by comparison. And that's not all!
The music score, composited from existing pieces by various artists (shades of Stanley Kubrick) is as much OR MORE of a work to itself, and I haven't been able to find out if this was of recent vintage or not. And then there's the film having FRENCH titles-- but ENGLISH narration in a heavy French accent. WILD!! Seriously-- is what's on the 2001 All Day Entertainment DVD a true relic of the era when silents were evolving into sound-- or a more modern "tampering"? Either way, I could not take my eyes off this thing for its entire 66-minute length. It's like a surrealistic dream you can't wake up from-- but you're enjoying it so much, you don't want to.

Other details that caught my attention include the opening sequence, where Allan stops at a local inn, asking for a ride to the Usher castle, and gets one, but at some distance, is dropped off by a coachman who tells him, "Nothing on Earth could make me go any closer!" It seems clearly inspired by Stoker's "Dracula", but it also struck me that Roger Corman used this exact bit in the pre-credit sequence of his 2nd Poe film, PIT AND THE PENDULUM (which I love to refer to as "House Of Usher 2").

And then there's the plaque commemorating "Lady Ligeia", Roderick's 1st wife. That's another story wherein a man re-marrries after his first wife dies, only to see his 2nd wife also die... before his 1st wife comes back from the dead in the body of his 2nd!

And then there's the bizzare but very cool repeated close-up shots of the grandfather clock's pendulum swinging in such a way it evokes the giant knife-blade from "The Pit And The Pendulum".

To me, the strangest change in the story is having Madeline buried in the family crypt, which is across a lake and must be reached by rowboat. Must make it hard for Roderick to hear the sound of his still-alive sister fighting to get out of her nailed-closed coffin. The interior of the crypt, by the way, reminded me of the cave from the classic Arabian Nights story "Alladin"!

I was also struck by how midway into the film, Allan has to put out a fire that starts accidentally... and then, at the climax, the electrical storm causes the entire castle to catch fire. In the 1960s, Roger Corman had no less than 5 of his 8 Poe stories end with a fire-- despite NONE of the stories those films were based on involving a fire at all. I keep finding earlier sources of inspiration for his films in comic-books and movies, and I wonder if he might have seen this 1928 film before doing his 1960 film.

By my info, there are currently at least 17 film adaptations of "Usher" (with this being the earliest!) but also, 46 different comic-book adaptations. I currently have 17 of those up at my blog. It's fun to compare different artistic interpretations of classic stories like these.

[profh0011]

I just had to share this excerpt of an IMDB review, by "telegonus" (10-6-2002):

"THE ANTI-DISNEY"

"I can't resist a few sociological comments on the Corman-Poe cycle of films of the early sixties. Tales Of Terror came out in 1962, the high noon of the New Frontier. This was a time of optimism and social change, the start of the space program and the Civil Rights movement, and yet in the middle of it all there was this series of low budget horror films, aimed mostly at children and teenagers, and quite unwholesome in atmosphere and subject matter. These weren't even monster movies, like the horrors of old, they were morbid movies about death, torture, witchcraft and premature burials. They were like anti-Disney films, with Price, Lorre and Rathbone instead of MacMurray, Brian Keith and Dorothy McGuire. If in Disney nothing really bad ever happened, in Corman-Poe nothing really good ever happened. Disney represented the smiling surface of America, while Corman-Poe hinted as anxieties just below the surface, and as such, sad to say, portents of things to come."

[The Australian Panther]

They were like anti-Disney films, with Price, Lorre and Rathbone instead of MacMurray, Brian Keith and Dorothy McGuire. 

Really?
Fred MacMurray is most noted for 'Double Indemnity' and was alsoin 'the Caine Mutiny' 'The Apartment', and 'The Swarm' - not to mention the Westerns.
Dorothy Malone? 'The Big Sleep, The Killer that stalked New York, Private Hell 36, The Fast and the Furious, and believe it or not, 'Basic Instinct'! 
Brian Keith? Mike Hammer [TV], The Violent Men, The Deadly Companions, Nevada Smith and the The Yakuza.
Conversely,
Peter Lorre? Five Weeks in a Balloon, Around the World in 80 Days and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea [Disney]
Vincent Price? The Ten commandments [!], Master of the World [Jules Verne], and believe it or not, The Love boat, animated Scooby-Do and the Brady Bunch [2 episodes]
Yes, I see the point the Journalist was trying to make,but he made it badly.
It would have been better to emphasize that as far as Hollywood goes, the post-years were somewhat more Jeckyl and Hyde and that there was clearly an audience for both Disney and Corman/Poe, often the same individuals - like myself!
And did eitherr Vincent Price or Peter Lorre ever work for Corman?
There is obviously a Thesis here.         

[profh0011]

Fred MacMurray is most noted for 'Double Indemnity' and was also in 'the Caine Mutiny' 'The Apartment', and 'The Swarm' - not to mention the Westerns.

I'm guessing the reviewer who mentioned him was thinking of MY THREE SONS (which I've read MacMurray hated doing!) and several 60s Disney films. I think I saw DOUBLE INDEMNITY once, but I definitely saw THE APARTMENT, and hated it-- and especially, the boss MacMurray played, virtually blackmailing his employee Jack Lemmon into loaning him his apartment on weekends so he can cheat on his wife with a woman he was also abusing.  My Dad was a fan of both Lemmon & Shirley MacLaine, and I suspect even HE hated that movie.  (I got it for him as a birthday present, and he never once mentioned it afterward.)



Dorothy Malone? 'The Big Sleep

She's my FAVORITE in there! However, the reviewer mentioned Dorothy McGuire.  Know anything about her? I don't think I've seen any of her work.


Brian Keith? Mike Hammer [TV]

I grew up seeing him in FAMILY AFFAIR. But he was also in SHARKEY'S MACHINE, perhaps the earliest film of the 1980s I would describe as "EXCESSIVELY-over-violent".  Last year I saw his unsold MIKE HAMMER pilot.  Jesus!!!  Thank God that didn't sell. He was TERRIBLE, totally-unlikable. Mike is supposed to be tough, but not a sociopath. Darren McGavin became my favorite, after I'd seen MANY others playing the part, though I must say, he only just barely edged out Biff Elliot, who I thought was PERFECT in I, THE JURY.


Peter Lorre? Five Weeks in a Balloon, Around the World in 80 Days and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea [Disney]


MR. MOTO! Also, VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA (1961).  On the other hand, "Le Chiffre" in the 1954 CLIMAX episode, "Casino Royale". I rate him as one of the BEST James Bond villains ever, but nobody likes to talk about that live TV production. And if you wanna see something REALLY sick & depraved, watch ISLAND OF DOOMED MEN (1940), with Lorre as a sadist running a prison work camp, with Charles Middleton as his main henchman.  You can't wait to see the guy get what's coming to him in that.



Vincent Price? The Ten commandments [!], Master of the World [Jules Verne], and believe it or not, The Love boat, animated Scooby-Do and the Brady Bunch [2 episodes]

A recent favorite of mine:  HIS KIND OF WOMAN (1951), where Price virtually plays a parody of himself as an egomaniacal Hollywood celebrity. I compare his part to that of Chris Tucker in THE FIFTH ELEMENT. I also love his 5th-season GET SMART episode.



Yes, I see the point the Journalist was trying to make,but he made it badly.
It would have been better to emphasize that as far as Hollywood goes, the post-years were somewhat more Jeckyl and Hyde and that there was clearly an audience for both Disney and Corman/Poe, often the same individuals - like myself!
And did either Vincent Price or Peter Lorre ever work for Corman?

Vincent Price did 7 movies for Corman, Peter Lorre did 2.  I'm working my way thru those right now, upgrading the whole set to Blu-Rays!

[profh0011]

Just got on Blu-Ray:
"HISTORIAS DE TERROR" /
"TALES OF TERROR" (1962)

Yes, folks, This is one of 2 Roger Corman POE films that, insanely, Shout Factory has completely ignored. They put out 3 different "Vincent Price Collection" box sets, and this isn't on ANY of them!!! I mean, seriously-- WTF??? Personally, I think it's idiotic beyond belief that neither Shout Factory in the US or Arrow in the UK didn't "simply" put out a box of ALL 8 Corman POE films-- including the one with RAY MILLAND. Really, what kind of drugs are these company owners on, anyway?

So, as it happens, Kino Lorber put both "THE PREMATURE BURIAL" and "TALES OF TERROR" out on separate Blu-Rays, both back in 2015. As it happens, all 3 SF boxes went out of print, as did both Kino discs. Shout Factory put out a 2nd edition of Box 1 in 2020, but the other 2 they've let go, and they're REALLY expensive to find now. In addition, both Kino discs are OUT OF PRINT. Now, Kino has recently put out a growing number of movies Shout Factory completely ignored-- AND, they've even been putting out brand-new discs of movies from SF's Box 2 & Box 3. But NOT these 2. I rather imagine they might, soon-- maybe even in the next few months (though I haven't read anything to that effect). But I'm buying these RIGHT NOW!!!

I managed to find a reasonably-priced copy of "BURIAL" from a seller in Tennessee for only $23.46. Not bad! But NOBODY (outside, perhaps, of some Amazon Marketplace store) had this one for a sane price. And I'm doing my DAMNDEST to avoid Amazon and their whole system, whenever I can.

So... I found a copy of the 2015 Tribeca Blu-Ray-- from a seller in-- it turns out-- The Netherlands!!! --for "only" $34.10. The box art & the menus are in SPANISH. The film comes with SPANISH language, ENGLISH language, Spanish, English, Portuguese or NO subtitles-- and-- get this-- NO dialogue. That's right. It's not an "isolated music score" track-- it's a track with the music and ALL THE SOUND EFFECTS-- but no dialogue whatsoever. HOW the hell did they manage that? (Perhaps it was taken off the Spanish version of the film?)

Now-- on the back of the box, it says "PAL". Which concerned me. I had just read a review of the German Koch Media disc of "BURIAL", which, because it was "PAL", was running at the WRONG speed. (Too fast.) However, I just clocked "TALES", and it came in at 1:28:23-- exactly 10 SECONDS shorter than my TCM videotape did! This HAS to be running at the CORRECT speed! The only thing I can figure for the slight difference, might be an "MGM" logo, which they've been adding to a lot of these old "AIP" films. There's NO "MGM" logo on this Blu-Ray.

All of which means, this disc is FINE. It's a slight hassle to have to make sure it plays IN ENGLISH before I watch it... but, unless Kino does a new version with a pile of extras (there's NO audio commentaries or anything on these 2 discs, just Trailers), I can't see any reason to ever want to upgrade them later.

[profh0011]

The ONLY "extra" on this disc is the TRAILER. And this I found VERY interesting. Dell Comics skipped the first 3 Corman POE films, but published a comic-book adaptation of "TALES OF TERROR". But there was something odd about it. The stories in the comic were...

"Valdemar"
"Black Cat"
"Morella"

...in that order. I've wondered for years, WHY? Then I saw the trailer. Crazy enough, THAT's the order the stories are described as being in, in the movie. Trailers are usually put together MONTHS before the release of films, and comics are usually timed to come out as close to the release of the film as possible. Apparently, the people at Dell saw the trailer, and MISTAKENLY believed that was the order of the stories. Had they been that way, the film would have ended with Locke's mansion BURNING to the ground, just as we saw at the end of "HOUSE OF USHER".

Luckily, someone realized "Valdemar" made for a MUCH-more satisfying conclusion of the film, with my favorite moment in the entire movie being when Carmichael (Basil Rathbone) reveals his true nature, only for him to do a "180" when he sees Valdemar RISE from his death bed to defend his wife Helene. "No-- NOOOOOO!!!!" Makes me LAUGH every time.

When I cleaned the book up (and fixed some 55-year-old coloring mistakes), I re-ordered the 3 stories so they would match the order seen IN THE FILM.

[profh0011]

As has been my habit of late, tonight I dug out my 1980s videotape of the film, recorded off Philly's Channel 3. GOD ALMIGHTY! Apart from being in fullscreen (so you're missing half of the visuals and the pan-and-scaan aspect created repeatedly jumpy images), and cut here and there for commercial breaks (only about 30 seconds were missing from this one), the sound & picture quality on the broadcast were ABYSMALLY bad. Fuzzy, with "ghosts", and the color TERRIBLY-faded, especially in the final story, "Valdemar". No wonder it was such a SHOCK when I taped it again in the 2000s off of TCM.

Well, I'll never have to put up with this MISEARBLE copy again. I honestly don't know how I ever put up with some of these broadcast copies for so long. I'm reminded of when my late best friend Jim once commented in the 90s that, when local TV stations began running VIDEOTAPEs of shows instead of old FADED FILM PRINTS, it suddenly looked like they were BRAND NEW, as if they'd been shot "yesterday" instead of decades earlier. In this case, even the top of the picture was cut off, because the TV camera pointing at the movie screen it was projected on was aimed too low.

I did some reading after, and found that the out-of-print Kino Lorber disc contained multiple extras. Too bad, as it's currently impossible to find a brand-new copy of their Blu-Ray at a decent price (which is why I sprung instead for the one from Spain).