The Silver Screen Oasis

Girl of the Bronx! I thought of you when I watched William Castle's MACABRE recently. Special ordered by the library, no less! It's not the director's best work, but the creepy, melodramatic atmosphere is sensational. It's all you'd expect from The Master of Schlock. Inappropriate burial, people literally scared to death, and...Jim Backus as the hero? At least his wife is not called Lovey! I don't remember seeing this one before. And I don't think I'd forget!

Hi, Mike! Haven't seen MACABRE in a long time, but the William Castle film that creeps me out the most -- hell, frankly, it practically traumatized me as a kidlet -- was and is MR. SARDONICUS. I wouldn't watch it again with a million lights on.

The Invisible Ray is coming on this Saturday a 1936 Movie starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi is coming on and I'm going to watch it.

Ooooh, Erik, I'm excited too! Haven't seen THE INVISIBLE RAY in a looooong time. A relatively low-key Bela gives one of his best performances co-starred with Karloff. Boris sports curly hair and if I remember coerrectly is pretty ham-fisted in this part, lol. Sleepy-eyed, languid, exotic, dusky Frances Drake plays his long-suffering wife. The score gets us going even when nothing is happening -- Drake merely walks across a parapet (because every mad scientist has one) and suddenly music swells to epically dramatic proportions. She's also wearing some kind of a cape that flutters in the wind.

This is a good one, and a Svengoolie favorite. I doubt if I'll watch it again!

I only saw the last half hour of The Invisible Ray (1936) but was stunned not so much by the glow-in-the-dark Boris as I was by the presence of Violet Kemble-Cooper, who came from a long line of English theater fixtures. Somehow it was kind of shocking to see the snowy-haired actress here playing Karloff's mommy as recently as 1936 (Violet and Boris were only a year apart in age--okay, Vi was one year older, so I guess that was enough to cast her as his mater)! I had mentally categorized her as someone who belonged to the 19th century or at least to the teens--the only other time I remember noting her unsmiling presence was in Our Betters (1933), when Gilbert Roland disappointed her. In The Invisible Ray she was suitably weird yet stately and meted out some maternal discipline to her crazed boy.

In case anyone would like to see this movie, it is here:

[dailymotion][/dailymotion]

Curucu, Beast of the Amazon (1956) is on Svengoolie this Saturday, June 6th. Normally, a movie with this kind of trailer might put me off, but Curt Siodmak, whose mind worked in really interesting ways (The Wolf Man, The Magnetic Monster, Donovan's Brain), is both writer and director here, so I may have to take a gander at this movie with the game Beverly Garland and John Bromfield in the leads. The movie was actually filmed on the Amazon and in Argentina.

[youtube][/youtube]

The color photography is nice (provided they show the color print), Beverly Garland is always nice, but without giving anything away, the movie turns out to be a HUGE disappointment.

Western Guy wrote:The color photography is nice (provided they show the color print), Beverly Garland is always nice, but without giving anything away, the movie turns out to be a HUGE disappointment.

...but is it cheesy fun??

I reckon it depends on your definition of cheesy fun, Moira. It ultimately results in such a letdown that - to me anyway: a Monsterkid - the film sinks to the bottom of the barrel - or the Amazon, if you will. A lot of monster movie fans agree with this assessment but . . . you might get a kick out of it.

Boo Universal-International.

I'll be curious to hear your thoughts.

No monster, no real plot, but lots of piranha footage, closeups of leaves, and shots of Beverly Garland screaming. Curt wasn't exactly making the name of Siodmak synonymous with good cinema this time around. This may have been the most incoherent movie I've seen since The Fury (1978), which belongs to that pool of movies that may have been made by people who were not at their best either.

May I have those two hours of my life back, please? (Even if I did work on a craft project, read and play Words with Friends while the movie was on!)

Smoking, Snakes, Screams!

Bronxgirl48 wrote:Smoking, Snakes, Screams!

...and shrunken heads!

At least next week is considerably better--The Bride of Frankenstein (1935). That one is often deliberately funny.

Well . . . can't say I didn't warn ya, Moira.

BTW: Was it the color print they showed? The only televised version I've ever seen was in b&w, which leaves B.G. as the film's sole saving grace.

I put myself through the CURUCU ordeal just once more when I was able to see the color version on a bootleg DVD.

Western Guy wrote:Well . . . can't say I didn't warn ya, Moira.

BTW: Was it the color print they showed? The only televised version I've ever seen was in b&w, which leaves B.G. as the film's sole saving grace.

I put myself through the CURUCU ordeal just once more when I was able to see the color version on a bootleg DVD.

The movie was in color, Stone. Murky and blurry at times, but colorful at least.

I wish that Svengoolie would try to get copies of interesting low budget movies by Curt Siodmak such as Donovan's Brain (1953) and The Magnetic Monster (1953) to air. They aren't perfect either, but at least they were inspired by some real science, and really had more thought (and organizational skill) behind them. BTW, both seem to be on youtube, though the quality of the prints may be less than ideal.

Besides, Lew Ayres can do no wrong in my book so you know D.B. is a biggie--I also like Gene Evans, even if he only had three expressions: angry, mystified and hungover.