This week on SVENGOOLIE...

[Hibi]

I hadn't seen The Mole People in a while and was wondering why they couldn't have a happy ending, thought there must be some censor-type reason for it. What a shame, they made a nice couple.

RADA-trained Alan Napier was the highlight, playing his role as the High Priest like a combination of Boris Karloff and a Shakespearean villain. Napier was a cousin of Neville Chamberlain and was married to a great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens.



One thing that bothered me about the film was that, since the people were "Sumerians," their goddess should have been Inanna, not Ishtar. Ishtar is a slightly later manifestation of the goddess. (I studied Sumerian history/religion).

"The Descent of Inanna to the Nether World" is a poem almost 5,000 years old. It's the prototype for many similar stories. I remember reading it in my very first Theology course in college.

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/ ... nanna1.pdf

And despite being an ancient civilization, they speak English! (as they all do in these type of films)

[Swithin]

I hadn't seen The Mole People in a while and was wondering why they couldn't have a happy ending, thought there must be some censor-type reason for it. What a shame, they made a nice couple.

RADA-trained Alan Napier was the highlight, playing his role as the High Priest like a combination of Boris Karloff and a Shakespearean villain. Napier was a cousin of Neville Chamberlain and was married to a great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens.



One thing that bothered me about the film was that, since the people were "Sumerians," their goddess should have been Inanna, not Ishtar. Ishtar is a slightly later manifestation of the goddess. (I studied Sumerian history/religion).

"The Descent of Inanna to the Nether World" is a poem almost 5,000 years old. It's the prototype for many similar stories. I remember reading it in my very first Theology course in college.

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/ ... nanna1.pdf

And despite being an ancient civilization, they speak English! (as they all do in these type of films)

That's right. I think one of the Sumerians says: "They speak our tongue." I took that for cinematic license, meaning since the visitors were archeologists, they knew Sumerian; just like a Hollywood movie set in Europe with European characters would be speaking English. Sumeriologists had deciphered a fair amount of Sumerian by the time the movie was made. This was the first book on the subject that I read, it's still on my shelf, more than 50 years later.

[Hibi]

Yes, no subtitles required!

[LiamCasey]

This month on Svengoolie...

5/6: Blacula (1972) w/ William Marshall, Denise Nicholas, Vonetta McGee, Gordon Pinsent and Thalmus Rasulala. Plus Ketty Lester, Elisha Cook, Jr., and The Hues Corporation.

5/13: The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966) w/ Don Knotts, Joan Staley, Liam Redmond and Dick Sargent.

5/20: The Thing with Two Heads (1972) w/ Ray Milland, Rosey Grier, Don Marshall, Roger Perry, Kathy Baumann and Chelsea Brown.

5/27: The Killer Shrews (1959) w/ Ingrid Goude, James Best, Ken Curtis, Baruch Lumet and Gordon McLendon.

[Swithin]

This month on Svengoolie...

5/6: Blacula (1972) w/ William Marshall, Denise Nicholas, Vonetta McGee, Gordon Pinsent and Thalmus Rasulala. Plus Ketty Lester, Elisha Cook, Jr., and The Hues Corporation.

5/13: The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966) w/ Don Knotts, Joan Staley, Liam Redmond and Dick Sargent.

5/20: The Thing with Two Heads (1972) w/ Ray Milland, Rosey Grier, Don Marshall, Roger Perry, Kathy Baumann and Chelsea Brown.

5/27: The Killer Shrews (1959) w/ Ingrid Goude, James Best, Ken Curtis, Baruch Lumet and Gordon McLendon.

I confuse The Thing with Two Heads (1972) with The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant (1971). But I just looked them up, and now I understand. I wonder if the earlier film inspired the one made a year later; or were two heads just a thing in the early 1970s?

[LiamCasey]

I confuse The Thing with Two Heads (1972) with The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant (1971). But I just looked them up, and now I understand. I wonder if the earlier film inspired the one made a year later; or were two heads just a thing in the early 1970s?

Looks like a bit more than just inspired. A quick IMDb search indicates that those two movies share a producer (John Lawrence) and a writer (James Gordon White).

[TikiSoo]

This month on Svengoolie...

5/6: Blacula (1972) w/ William Marshall, Denise Nicholas, Vonetta McGee, Gordon Pinsent and Thalmus Rasulala. Plus Ketty Lester, Elisha Cook, Jr., and The Hues Corporation.

5/13: The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966) w/ Don Knotts, Joan Staley, Liam Redmond and Dick Sargent.

5/20: The Thing with Two Heads (1972) w/ Ray Milland, Rosey Grier, Don Marshall, Roger Perry, Kathy Baumann and Chelsea Brown.

5/27: The Killer Shrews (1959) w/ Ingrid Goude, James Best, Ken Curtis, Baruch Lumet and Gordon McLendon.

THANKS!
I'm always up for Blackula! It'll be a party night!
Pretty tired of Ghost & Mr Chicken, although loved it since childhood.
Have NOT SEEN Thing With 2 Heads since seeing it in the theater as an 11 year old! (perfect age for that sort of thing) Let's see if it still works for me.
Killer Shrews. Meh.

[TikiSoo]

Killer Shrews. Meh.

Can only slog through the MST version.

Any MTS3K fans out there notice the Pluto MST3K Channel has unceremoniously replaced streaming all the classic Joel & Mike episodes with some new wanker cast episodes?
Sorry, it's not about ridiculing the screen....they don't "get" it.

[Detective Jim McLeod]

THANKS!
I'm always up for Blackula! It'll be a party night!
Pretty tired of Ghost & Mr Chicken, although loved it since childhood.
Have NOT SEEN Thing With 2 Heads since seeing it in the theater as an 11 year old! (perfect age for that sort of thing) Let's see if it still works for me.
Killer Shrews. Meh.

Blacula is a good one, though I am sure there was be some bleeps for curses and slurs as well as a few cuts in violent scenes. Same thing for Thing With Two Heads which is one of the most hilariously bad movies ever.

A good thing about Svengoolie being on for 21/2 hours now is that he will (I would hope) be able to show the entire movie of Ghost And Mr. Chicken since before it had to be cut for time constraints.

[Detective Jim McLeod]

I saw Blacula last night, still a good one. William Marshall is excellent in the lead, he takes the role seriously and his great voice and commanding presence really uplifts the whole film. He is scary in the attack scenes and sympathetic in the other scenes. Thalmus Rasulala is also good as the doctor who serves as the Van Helsing type, he was in many TV shows around this time, a notable one not mentioned by Sven was his guest shot on All In The Family, same year this movie was released. He played a "blockbuster" real estate agent who tries to get Archie to sell his home. Denise Nicholas was still appearing on Room 222 around this time, one of my favorite TV shows. Lonetta McGee would later appear opposite Clint Eastwood in The Eiger Sanction, also not mentioned by Sven. He also doesn't say anything about Elisha Cook, who has a cameo as a hook handed morgue attendant, maybe he spoke about him many times before. Emily Yancy is the sexy photographer/victim in this, she was in the Otto Preminger cult film Tell Me That You Love Me Junie Moon (1970). Gordon Pinsent, the police lieutenant, later got some of his best reviews when he played Julie Christie's husband in Away From Her (2007) , a touching drama about Alzheimer's, Christie got an Oscar nomination for this.

As expected, some of the language was cut. One of the funniest lines was when after Rasulala scolds a black undertaker, after he leaves, the undertaker says "That is the rudest n!gg@ I have ever seen!" but the entire line is totally cut. The slur was also used by Denise Nicholas in a later scene and seems to have been bleeped, but she says it so fast it is hard to tell. Several uses of "f@gg0t" is also cut, though surprisingly "a s s" is also bleeped. There didn't appear to be any cuts in the violence.

Sven does a very funny song parody about Blacula, sung to the tune of "Baby Face", though it was a clip of an older show.

[TikiSoo]

Nice write up, Detective. I love Blackula-half because it's a vampire story, half because of the groovy black/African vibe. Those giant hooptie earrings are nothing new, are they?

I too was surprised Sven ignored Elisha Cook. I don't think I had ever seen him this old, yet he still had his baby face. I didn't notice the hook/hand until the last scene he was in! That was kind of a dumb costuming choice.

Heh, I too was a Room 222 & All In The Family fan. Have sitcoms gotten worse or am I just too old to care for anything contemporary? I think the last sitcom I watched was CYBILL and even that was re-runs.

[Hibi]

Wanted to watch Blacula again, but became too involved in gardening/planting and didnt finish in time. WIsh TCM would show this w/out the cuts! Marshall is really good in this. Knowing Sven, I'm sure it'll be repeated (this wasn't the first showing)......

[Hibi]

This month on Svengoolie...

5/6: Blacula (1972) w/ William Marshall, Denise Nicholas, Vonetta McGee, Gordon Pinsent and Thalmus Rasulala. Plus Ketty Lester, Elisha Cook, Jr., and The Hues Corporation.

5/13: The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966) w/ Don Knotts, Joan Staley, Liam Redmond and Dick Sargent.

5/20: The Thing with Two Heads (1972) w/ Ray Milland, Rosey Grier, Don Marshall, Roger Perry, Kathy Baumann and Chelsea Brown.

5/27: The Killer Shrews (1959) w/ Ingrid Goude, James Best, Ken Curtis, Baruch Lumet and Gordon McLendon.

WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!! I just noticed The Thing With Two Heads!!!!!!! Havent seen that one in a long time. I will record it! I actually bought a cut rate CD some years ago with Heads and another AIP film on it, but it got misplaced in my last move! A SO BAD IT'S GOOD classic!!!!!!!

[Hibi]

THANKS!
I'm always up for Blackula! It'll be a party night!
Pretty tired of Ghost & Mr Chicken, although loved it since childhood.
Have NOT SEEN Thing With 2 Heads since seeing it in the theater as an 11 year old! (perfect age for that sort of thing) Let's see if it still works for me.
Killer Shrews. Meh.

Blacula is a good one, though I am sure there was be some bleeps for curses and slurs as well as a few cuts in violent scenes. Same thing for Thing With Two Heads which is one of the most hilariously bad movies ever.


CONCUR!!!! One of the most hilarious bad movies ever!!!



A good thing about Svengoolie being on for 21/2 hours now is that he will (I would hope) be able to show the entire movie of Ghost And Mr. Chicken since before it had to be cut for time constraints.

[Hibi]

How did they bring Blacula back for the sequel? (Since he evaporated in the original)