31 Days of Halloween - Day 28 - Movie 1

The last time I wtached "The She-Creature" (1956) I found it to be somewhat slow and a bit dull. What compelled me to watch it again after such an initial assessment, I couldn't tell you. I'm glad I did though as my reaction was a lot different this time. While I wouldn't make any suggestion that this movie even approaches being a masterpiece, it's a very watchable and somewhat entertaining movie. The plot combines hypnotism, past life regression, reincarnation, spiritualism, psychology and wonky evolutionary theory. Dr. Lombardi (Chester Morris), a sideshow hypnotist, has made a name for himself by putting his assistant Andrea (Marla English) into a trance state and regressing her to a past life as an English woman. He also predicts horrible murders supposedly committed by some prehistoric creature, a primordial sea ancestor of human beings, and allegedly Andrea's first life. The police and a rival psychologist (Tom Conway) don't believe Lombardi's claims, though they believe he's behind the murders anyway. Eventually, the She-Creature rears her head for even the skeptics to see, with one last murder to perform.

The real treat of this movie is Paul Blaisdell's She-Creature. Blaisdell created some of the most iconic, and imaginative, movie monsters of all time on a shoe-string budget. Their effectiveness on the screen, like any monster, depended on lighting, composition, and the length of time they appeared in any shot. Often, the film makers didn't take this into consideration, and the results became more comedic than terrifying such as with the monster in "It Conquered the World." Here though, the She-Creature looks pretty impressive except for one brief shot where you can see styrofoam block lifts, on the monsters feet, worn by Blaisdell to give him more height. Blaisdell also created the aliens in "Invasion of the Saucer Men," the mutant in "The Day the World Ended" the oversized props for "The Amazing Colossal Man" and "The Beast with 1,000,000 Eyes."

31 Days of Halloween - Day 28 - Riddle

What do you call a dentist who offers to clean a werewolf's teeth?








Answer to yesterday's riddle: That depends on how fast you carry it!

31 Days of Halloween - Day 28

I was hoping to create some new, original Halloween collages this year, but between work, Halloween preperations, family, and these daily posts, just didn't have the time. It's even more disappointing because this week's topic at Illustration Friday is "Trick or Treat." I apologize to those of you who have seen these images before. For anyone wondering about the sunny, unseasonal setting for the third image, it's for a "Halloween in May" CD I put together for the members of the Universal Monster Army group. I figured, if people can offer up "Christmas in July," why can't my favorite holiday get the twice a year attention. Click on an image for a larger view.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 27 - Frankenstein Week Concludes

That concludes Frankenstein Week for this year's 31 days of Halloween. Starting tomorrow, I'll be returning to a mixture of seasonal fare as we quickly approach Halloween itself.

If you're looking for more Frankenstein, I highly recommend dropping by Frankensteinia.

One final Frankenstein question from me: Does anyone know why Dr. Frankenstein had to cobble his creation together out of numerous dead bodies? Couldn't he have just found one that was fresh and in good shape and simply reanimated that one? Even if he wanted to give it a new brain, that's simply two bodies. there isn't any real reason to mix and match arms and intestines if you get ahold of a good cadaver.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 27 - Movie 2

I haven't watched "Young Frankenstein" (1974) in years, and was hesitant to do so now because i was afraid I'd find the familiar jokes stale, and because some of the performances such as Gene Wilder as the blind hermit, and Kenneth Mars as Inspector Kemp had affected my ability to watch the original performances which inspired them. I was gratified to see that I still found it funny, and that the jokes continued to work because of the performances that accompanied their delivery. So, even such adolescent fare as "What knockers," still work well. The performances are all perfect with a great cast including Gene Wilder (who also cowrote the script with Mel Brooks), Marty Feldman, Madeline Kahn, Peter Boyle, and Teri Garr. Like "Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein" this movie works because, well it isn't exactly played straight, and there's no real horror, but the story itself is taken more or less seriously, and Mel Brooks took the pains to make this look just like one of the Universal Frankenstein movies.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 27 - Movie 1

I've always been one to mix humor and horror in my work, and it's probabaly because I saw "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" (1948) at a young age. With the decline in quality, revenue and interest of Universal's horror franchise in the 1940s, there was only one thing to do--play them for laughs. Bud Abbott and Lou Costello play delivery men who get themselves mixed up with crates containing the real Dracula (Bela Lugosi) and real Frankenstein monster (Glenn Strange), not to mention poor Lawrence Talbot (Lon Chaney, Jr.) still cursed with turning into the Wolfman while trying to stop Dracula from reviving the monster. There's also subplots involving a dispute witha wax museum owner, an insurance investigation, and a scheme to place Costello's simple, more obedient, brain in the Frankenstein's monster so he'll be easier to control. Oh, and Vincent Price makes an unbilled cameo as a fourth monster.

The horror aspects of this movie are played completely straight, which makes it succeed. Unlike Universal's straight attempts to combine batches of their monsters in one movie, this one works. Not only that, but the monsters do all end up on the screen together in a pretty comedic battle sequence which includes Abbott and Costello constantly trying to avoid one monster or another, as they are stalked by the Frankenstein monster and Dracula and the Wolfman battle it out with a chair. Initially, my daughter asked why Abbott and Costello were considered comedians, which amused and horrified me at the same time, then later reported that the movie was hilarious. My son found the comedy funny, but also hid during moments of Costello being unaware that the Wolfman was doing his best to pounce upon him. Granted, the shot of Costello writing Lawrence Talbot a note, while the Wolfman emerges from the bathroom in the background does show just how frightening Jack Pierce's Wolfman makeup was. Lugosi also does demonstrate a sense of humor and ability to handle comedy, making me wish that his own desire to do more comedy had been realized. There's also a terrific score and nifty animated opening titles, which I wish had been expanded into their own movie.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 27 - Riddle

Is it true the monster won't touch you if you carry a flashlight?








Answer to yesterday's riddle: Bolt upright.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 27 - Spooky Bonus

Speaking of Frankenstein books, one of the books I picked up this fall was "Frankenstein: A Cultural History" by Susan Tyler Hitchcock. I haven't had time to read it yet, but it looks like it's going to be a fascinating, informative read.

She also has a blog called Monster Sightings about all things Frankenstein. Go check it out.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 27 - Continued

Here are more of the many different images that have graced the covers of the novel "Frankenstein" over the years.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 27

Over the years, the novel "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley has been published in countless different editions, and with just as many cover styles. The imagery has varied from the use of the iconic portrayal of the monster by Boris Karloff, to allegorical imagery, and others featuring laboratory equipment, or figures from classic paintings recast to represent Frankenstein, the scientist. There have also been some really uninspired covers as well, surprising for a story which conjures up so much imagery even for those who've never read it, nor seen the movies.

Here is a small sampling of book covers for "Frankenstein."