Misremembered Tide of Keaton!

I recently ran across a DVD I had copied off Turner Classic Movies maybe 5 or 10 years ago, who knows? The 1929 MGM silent film with music and effects track is Tide of Empire. This fast-moving, large-scale A-western directed by Alan Dwan is set in the Gold Rush days. Having just scanned through it a few times I can highly recommend it. The ruggedly handsome hero is future cowboy B-star Tom Keene, here billed as George Duryea. So Tom started at the top with MGM but rode off to greener valleys, much like Johnny Mac Brown made love to Greta Garbo in silents until sound revealed his very southern accent and true calling in the West.

The discovery of gold in California in 1848 brings a tide of gold seekers to the area, disrupting the lives of the Guerrero family who have owned nearby Rancho Chico for generations. Among these are Dermod D'Arcy, in partners with a jailer, Bejabbers. At a fiesta where horse races are traditionally run, a stranger notices Dermod's exceptionally fast horse, Pathfinder, and urges him to enter the horse in the race. It becomes a three-horse race, with Don José Guerrero betting his ranch that his horse will win. When Pathfinder wins, Dermod takes the ranch as his share of the winnings and gives it to Don José's daughter, Josephita, with whom he had fallen in love earlier, when he met her. Dermod and Bejabbers leave to search for gold, and the town grows rich as more and more gold is amassed. Meanwhile, a bandit chief, Cannon, met Josephita's brother, Romauldo, and forced him to join the gang.

The female star of the surviving silent version is Renée Adorée, the French star of The Big Parade who is quite appealing there and in other late silent MGMs. Sadly she only made 3 more films after Tide before dying of tuberculosis at the age of 35. A curious credit appears on the IMDB that a second version of Tide of Empire was made with the same cast except that Joan Crawford replaced Renée. Is this a lost sound version, a lost Joan Crawford film, or a mistake by IMDB? I wonder because extensive Joan Crawford sites such as this one do not even mention the film. In search of one mystery I found another.

I recall that Robert Osborne said in his introduction that Buster Keaton was rumored to have visited the set with his wife Natalie, and that Buster appeared in the film in a cameo, but no one could quite find him in the film today.

Certainly Keaton would be welcome on any MGM set between his big hits The Cameraman and Spite Marriage. My wife and I took up the challenge and ran through the crowd scenes again and again until we thought we found him. This may have been ten years ago. My clear memory is that we found Buster in heavy disguise (mustache and beaver hat) but right up front in a wedding scene at the end of the film. My intention today was to put this scene on Youtube with a link so Keaton fans could see the lost scene. Much to my surprise today, there is no wedding scene!

Once more, where the heck is Buster? The IMDB lists him as uncredited as a character called "Bump." So I looked and looked and finally found two seconds of bonafide, I swear it's him, Buster Keaton. But look fast in the clip that follows. Right after the frog race is a brief shot of the fiesta party. Keaton's head is directly above Renée's in the top left quarter of the frame. He opens his mouth wide in a Buster expression and in two seconds it cuts to the title "Come Josepheta ... dance for us!" The next short scene before she dances is a continuation of the same shot. It is harder to be certain it is Buster, because the character is laughing. After the dance, I repeat the Buster cameo without the inter-title for a second look. Tune in the next time Tide of Empire is on TCM. I will. I need to make a sharper transfer!

If anyone knows of another Buster glimpse in the film, I'm all ears. Anyway, he was there that day and looks like he had fun! Viva Keaton!

Visit my website at Festival Films

A Viking Thanksgiving!

But first lets get the "turkeys" out of the way. We live in Vikings country, the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Our turkey Viking is the NFL football team. Everyone knows the great warrior (no disrespect intended) Brett Favre should have retired at the top of his game ... last year. When they talk about going to the Super Bowl before the first game is played, you know it's about over. It's over.

Gathered in my home this Thanksgiving were wife, Chris, her brother Scott, her sister Nancy, husband Greg and two teenage sons Nick and Brendan. My son Jeff couldn't make it here from San Francisco. All of us have fun by making relatives sit through, or at least sample, really bad movies. If they are truly boring, I may walk out and go watch a western, which they may consider an equal waste of time. Some half-baked turkeys in our home are Anthony Adverse, Tender is the Night and the seasonal gobbler (wow, a bad movie with a turkey/thanksgiving theme) Plymouth Adventure.

We watched PA last year -- colorful but boring and unconvincing. I hope Spencer Tracy was well paid. Gene Tierney looked like no Pilgrim. Will they make it to the new world??? Yes, they do! So when it was on TCM this week I taped it for the guests. We only got around to running the credits as they were putting on their coats. The mere music sped them out the door. Mission accomplished.

Also on TCM last Sunday was a film we had missed in earlier showings -- The Viking, made in 1928 in full and still stunning two-strip Technicolor. I taped it and watched it on Wednesday night with Scott. After the big turkey dinner the next day, talk turned to the film because of rumors we had descended from Eric the Red or Leif Ericsson, plus a silent all-color film was pretty scarce. A suggestion to show a few minutes turned into re-watching the entire movie with two teenage boys who may have never seen a silent film before. No grumbling, no leaving the room and no fast forwarding. It entertained. I sat in the one big chair without a view of the screen and slept through the first half. After turkey I would have slept through London After Midnight.

So what the heck is so good or fascinating about The Viking? The blue-red color hues surely give it an ancient look.... Skip that, it's perky, pretty and busty Helga pictured here and played by Pauline Starke. Helga is the only woman on a long ocean voyage to uncharted lands ... some costume, huh?

From the IMDB: "Yes, it's true, an all color silent movie! The title refers to Leif Ericsson, who leaves Norway to search for new lands west of Greenland. On the way he vies for the love of Helga with his companion Egil and Alwin, an English slave. More conflict arises when he stops at the colony of his father (Eric the Red) in Greenland, for Leif has converted to Christianity, which his father hates. He also has to deal with the unrest of his crew, who fear falling off the edge of the Earth."

Director Roy William Neil helmed most of the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films and Roy knew even in 1928 how to move a film right along. It's loaded with viking sword fight action. The young hero is played by Le Roy Mason, who went on to a long career in B-westerns as the head bad guy vs. John Wayne, Roy, Hoppy, Gene and more. Le Roy is right up there with Roy Barcroft and Douglas Dumbrille. The older hero who plays Leif Ericson is Donald Crisp, silent film director and distinguished actor from The Birth of Nation to his Oscar role in How Green Was My Valley. Pauline Starke appeared in Griffith's Intolerance (1916) and was 27 when she made The Viking. Alas, that's too old for a leading lady in Hollywood and Pauline's zenith was also her farewell to stardom. Here is a nice still of the three stars. Double click to enlarge the photo. They are all good, the many vikings are manly, and the largely true story of the first trip to America is convincing. The Viking was our Thanksgiving desert this year!

Be sure to catch The Viking the next time it is on TCM. If anyone would like to borrow my DVD (sending a copy would be an FBI violation!), then send me an email to fesfilms@aol.com.

Visit my website at Festival Films

Santa's Surprise!

Quick, open the present! Santa's surprise is a brand new (old) public domain Christmas show that no one else has. Only me. Wow, what is it? Got your attention? We'll get to it shortly.

This column is mainly an ad. Buy my new Christmas DVD as a gift to your viewers. That's all. "A happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!" says Santa at the end of "A Night Before Christmas." The end.

OK, I don't actually do ads in this blog. For specific "Buy this, it's good" ads, visit my website and check out the Festival Films/Café Roxy Christmas Programs. I only write here about films or projects that are new or of possible interest to others or have been consuming my week, and I try not to be boring.

This project started nine days ago when two active customers in Nevada wanted Christmas shows for local TV. They had shown the Beverly Hillbillies / Petticoat Junction X-mas shows last year and now wanted to get Scrooge, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, A Christmas Without Snow, Christmas Cartoon Festival and a special 2-hour compilation of the best of TV Christmas shows. This last program of shorts I would make up fresh. They asked for the Burns and Allen Christmas show, which I have but only in poor quality. One of them summed up their desire in a way I could not have written better:

"My thoughts are, back as a little kid and being born in 1958 we used to watch black and white TV, of course. The big thing was shows had audiences and loved the Christmas specials by whom ever. We knew when there was a show coming up in November and specially in December it would be a Chhristmas show. I am trying to wear the past time travel helmet and I know this new generation would get a kick out of it as us parents recite back in those days! Oh man, I am getting old, lol. So now you know my thoughts gentlemen. Retro blast of the past to the way it was, and now you too know how it feels."

Of all the 1950s popular TV series, none had more Christmas shows than "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" because they often worked in two each season as in "Boys' Christmas Money" (12/19/52) and "Late Christmas Gift" shown the next week of the first season on 12/26/1952. Season Two only had one X-Mas show -- "The Miracle" -- and this is the surprise I obtained recently and added to the new "Best of TV Christmas" show, as per line-up shown in the poster on the left (which anyone who buys the show can use to promote it in move theaters or on TV.) That's a plug, but try it, it works.

At first I had included the Captain Gallant Christmas show "The Boy Who Found Christmas" and called the program "Christmas Film Fun." Cuffy, played by Buster Crabbe's son in the series, runs away to find lost presents and during his adventure discovers the true meaning of Christmas. It's a good show and was the only "serious" episode among all the comedy, but a few days later it struck me (I'm slow) that few remember Captain Gallant while everyone loves Betty White. Her Christmas show, which I offered on another disc, is from her 1957 one-season series "A Date with the Angels." It concerns a department store Santa who gives away presents, thus thawing the heart of the Scrooge-like manager. So I replaced Betty for Buster and re-named the show "A Classic Christmas." You can even call it "A Classic Christmas with Betty White & Friends!"

Back to the Ozzie rarity. "The Miracle" is not only a good Christmas show that has not been on the market in any DVD collections, it is unique in the entire series of over 400 shows. It's Christmas at the Nelsons, natch, and Ozzie brings home a merchant gift of a barometer that says it will snow soon. This recalls a memory leading to a flashback of when Ozzie was a kid in around 1915. Ricky plays Oz as a kid while David plays his older brother Al. Ozzie and Harriet play their parents. The miracle in both the past and present stories is that the father promises snow when it isn't supposed to. (Ozzie's barometer is a fake that never changes its reading.) Guess what? It snows anyway.


See all my other Christmas Programs.

Visit my website at Festival Films

Happy Trails Ride Again!

July 15, 2010: NEW YORK (AP) - Roy Rogers' stuffed horse, Trigger, has been sold at auction for more than $266,000 in Midtown. Christie's said Rogers' faithful companion was bought by cable's RFD-TV in Omaha, Nebraska, at an auction Wednesday of items from the now-closed Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum in Branson, Missouri. Roy Rogers' stuffed and mounted dog, Bullet, fetched $35,000 on the second day of an auction of the movie cowboy's belongings in New York City.

The television network's chief financial officer says Rogers' reflects the company's values. The station calls itself "Rural America's Most Important Network." CFO Steve Campione says the company hopes to start its own museum. He said the company is looking to buy more Rogers items at auction.

When I heard this news back in July I said to myself I should contact RFD-TV to see if they needed any Roy Rogers movies. I didn't. But better yet, they contacted me this past week inquiring about the Roy Rogers TV shows from 1951 to 1957. All episodes are in the public domain except for some from the final season. I mailed off some sample episodes on DVD-R, but recommend they acquire on BetaSP for maximum quality because RFD-TV is a national cable company.

The big, big news is that RFD-TV has acquired 33 episodes in the "Happy Trails Theater" series and is currently airing them 3 times a week. Check out their schedule. Last week they ran Southward Ho. Debuting on Sunday is The Arizona Kid. So Happy Trails are back, only a bit different. In the original series an elderly Roy and Dale introduced each film and talked with guests like Iron Eyes Cody, Peggy Stewart, Gene Autry, their son Dusty and many more. Well, these intros are gone, but you can still enjoy them in the Happy Trails versions of Roy's westerns available from Netflix.

The new intros are by Dusty Rogers, aka. Roy Rogers Jr., and his son (I assume) Dustin Rogers. They give informative and professional insights into the film, then return after the feature to sing a song and tell stories. The time slot is currently 90 minutes. The original Happy Trails shows only ran about 65 minutes without commercials and in many cases the features were cut to fit this. I will be curious to see if they run full length features at times. If RFC-TV adds Roy's TV show, the slot could expand to two-hours.

The revamped Happy Trails Theater is the only vintage movies or TV shows currently on RFD-TV. As such it's a wonderful opportunity to attract new viewers and fans to B-westerns and to Roy Rogers in particular. I'm betting the popularity mushrooms.

Just in the last week I saw two of Roy's better films, courtesy of Netflix, that I had always wanted to see. Sons of the Pioneers (1942) co-stars Gabby Hayes and Pat Brady as Roy's sidekicks. They work well together a full 9 years before Pat became the "comical sidekick" on Roy's TV series. Roy pretends to be a milquetoast easterner so he can work undercover. His chemist training helps uncover the truth about fake foot and mouth disease. Go watch it!

Of greater interest, and far more fun than I expected, was Trail of Robin Hood, a Trucolor gem from 1950. Roy plays a forest ranger or something using his own name, of course. Jack Holt, father of cowboy star Tim Holt, plays himself -- a retired old time cowboy movie star. The story even works in a screening from one of Jack's silent westerns. Penny Edwards is the girl and Gordon Jones as Splinters McGonigle is Roy's sidekick.

The very best Republic western director, William Witney, put a lot of innovation into scripts and action in the waning years of the B-western. The basic plot concerns the dread Christmas tree syndicate??? Jack Holt wants to sell the trees on his land dirt cheap so that poor families can all have a tree, whereas a big businessman wants to corner the market and jack up the prices. The bigwig is Penny Edwards' father so you know he's not really bad, but his chief henchman sure is.

In 1945 Republic filmed another great Roy Rogers Bells of Rosarita with Gabby Hayes and Dale Evans. In that film Roy played a cowboy movie star for Republic. The studio sent over 5 other cowboy stars to help Roy in the climax: Don Red Berry, Wild Bill Elliot, Allan Rocky Lane, Sunset Carson and Robert Livingston. Studio girl on the phone: "I'm sorry but John Wayne is on location and can't make it."

In Trail of Robin Hood Republic repeated this formula of guest stars in the climax. The bad Christmas tree guys scare away all wagon drivers in the area. Who will get the trees to market? The little girl in the story sees a wall of cowboy photos in Jack Holt's bedroom and gets the idea to invite them all to help out -- Allan Rocky Lane, Rex Allen, Crash Corrigan, Monte Hale, Tom Tyler, Kermit (brother of Ken) Maynard, Tom Keene and two more. The first surprise is William Bill Farnum who started films in 1914. Bill rides up and says: "I want to help too. I'm Bill Farnum. I rode with Jack 20 years ago."

Another old timer who started in 1915 rides up: "Hi Boys, I'm George Chesebro." Now George was on the ugly and scrawny side, ideally suited for playing in henchmen in well over 100 B-westerns. He strides into the bunch of good guys who turn away and will not shake his hand! Finally the little girl says, "Hey, wait a minute. I know you. You're always a meanie." George: "I know, but after making 20 pictures with Jack Holt, he reformed me." Roy: "In that case we can use you." And everyone welcomes George to the gang.

Watch the scene and a bit more of the cowboy all-stars here:

Get the complete Trail of Robin Hood from Netflix, or watch for RFD-TV to air it on Happy Trails Theater shortly before Christmas!


Visit my website at Festival Films

The Bride of Frankie Posters!

What will this poster sell for at auction on November 12? Follow the bidding and the suspense on the Heritage House auction site. 5,815 have already visited this page and two bidders have already placed their bids. If you would like to be the third, you better have half a million in your pocket.

Yes, a handful of movie posters rival the old masters in sales and future value, or at least that's buyer expectation. The Universal horror films will continue to rank at the very top. They have inspired so many kids over the years (me too!) and the gothic images are iconic, ultimate collectibles. People would pay to see these posters in museums, where many will end up if not already there.

This Bride poster is the only one known to exist! Here is much more from the Heritage web page: "To a new world of gods and monsters." With that toast, Dr. Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) and Doctor Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger) begin the thrilling adventure of creating the mate for The Monster (Boris Karloff) in the critically acclaimed masterwork directed by James Whale, The Bride of Frankenstein, sequel to the smash hit from 1931, Frankenstein. Whale, insisting on complete control, delivered a triumphant sequel, surpassing it's original in almost every way, creating a sly and subversive work with its mix of dark humor, gothic horror, unspoken subtext and superb craftsmanship."

"Considered by many the greatest horror film of all time, The Bride of Frankenstein proved director James Whale's crowning achievement. Aside from cast members Clive and Karloff reprising their roles, the addition of Ernest Thesiger as the demented Dr. Pretorius and Elsa Lanchester in the dual roles of Mary Shelley (seen in the prologue) and obviously, as 'The Monster's Mate' proved a brilliant stroke of casting. Also contributing with excellent work was makeup genius Jack Pierce, luminous camerawork by John J. Mescall, stunning art direction by Charles D. Hall aided immeasurably by Kenneth Strickfadden's electrical lab equipment and design and of course, the extraordinary musical score composed by Franz Waxman. Such talent in front and behind the camera all helped to create a timeless classic selected in 1998 to be part of the National Film Registry, Library of Congress."

"Of the three one sheet designs originally produced for in-theatre promotion for The Bride of Frankenstein, this only known Teaser (Advance) poster boasts the most powerful image of the lot. With it's brilliant cherry red printing combined with the shocking image of The Monster in torn, burned clothing, shackled and chained to a heavy chair with rays of energy and light bursting behind, it simply does not get any better. The compelling tagline "I DEMAND A MATE" arguably provocative given the time, is further enhanced by challenging the reader with "WHO will be THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN" and "WHO will dare?"

This incredible Universal Horror one sheet from The Bride of Frankenstein, one of the most dramatic we have ever seen from any genre, from perhaps the greatest horror film of all time, is celebrating it's 75th Anniversary this year."

"Again, this is the only example of the Teaser one sheet from The Bride of Frankenstein ever to surface and after all these years, it's very likely there will never be another."

"The poster is unrestored with some border and interior pinholes, a few minor border chips and two clean tears that extend into the image, one at the top left and the other in the lower right. Paper tape supports both tears on verso as well as a tiny piece at each cross fold. The poster displays beautifully as is, or with the most minor restoration would present itself as virtually mint. The poster has been graded by MP Grading and the Certificate of Authenticity and Grading Document is included. From the collection of Todd Feiertag. Fine-. We invite everyone to come see this rare treasure in our Beverly Hills office. Estimate: $700,000 - $900,000."

The Bride of Frankenstein lobby cards displayed above were sold by Heritage House at prices of $8,365, $3,585 and $10,755, but are of course not the only ones in existence.

Visit my website at www.fesfilms.com.

The Bride and Me!

Up until I was 14 I lived in Deerfield, Wisconsin. We got mediocre TV reception from Madison 25 miles to the west and rather poor shows from Milwaukee 70 miles east, despite having a tall antenna on the roof that was motorized so it could rotate for best tuning. I always suspected it froze up during the dead of winter but never ventured onto the roof to unjam it.

By the age of 13 (1959) I got my first issue of "Famous Monsters of Filmland" and dove into the eerie world of classic sci-fi & horror films that I had never seen before. This magazine altered my life by opening worlds of excitement. Horror films were fun, mysterious, scary and forbidden by parents. Forry Ackerman's love of Lon Chaney Sr. also led me into the world of silent films. A good history of the birth of FM is on the official website.

The Universal horror package was released to most local TV stations in the mid to late 1950s, often with local horror hosts. They were either slow reaching Madison or I was forbidden to watch them. I know I was forbidden to watch horror films so I suspect they simply were not playing on local TV because I would surely remember missing them. I don't know what my parents had against the classic gothic horror films. Most parents of the 1950s seemed to oppose them on moral grounds or afraid their kids would be scared too much! That's not how it worked.

About the same time in my life I took on a newspaper delivery route that covered about half of the small town. I delivered papers for about two years and quit when we moved to Madison when I was 14. (I went to three years of high school and four years of college in Madison.) Am I boring, or are you wondering how a paper route connects with Boris Karloff?

I used earnings from paper delivering to order back issues of Famous Monsters from their sales branch, Captain Company. Often Captain Company took my quarters and dimes sent in the mail and returned nothing back! Eventually and after repeated orderings I obtained all the back issues, including #1 that sells for big bucks today, except for the elusive issue #4. I wrote to the editor, Forry Ackerman, about my problems and he mailed me an autographed copy, that I totally did not expect and which earned a lifetime of gratitude. I eventually stopped collecting FM with issue #100, but I have kept them all to this very day and they are not for sale.

A year before we moved to Madison a TV station finally began running the Universal horror films Saturday late night at 1:00 am. I delivered the Sunday newspaper starting at 6:00 am. In order to "not wake people up" I conceived and executed a master plan. I slept Saturday night on the couch in the living room... where the TV was. I set an alarm clock under my pillow to wake me at 1:00, I watched the horror films with barely audible sound, went back to sleep and got up two hours later for the paper route. Some nights reception was not that hot. I still recall trying to watch the mediocre, non-horror film Black Friday with both Karloff and Lugosi, and I mainly remember because I have never seen it since. They were slow to broadcast the real classics but eventually got around to House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula, Dracula's Daughter and most of the rest.

The family had made plans to move to Madison and a moving date was set, but I cared more about seeing the ultimate MONSTER film. I had read all about it, but had never seen The Bride of Frankenstein in its totally. I did own the 3 minute Castle Films 8mm silent version, which is entirely footage of the lab sequence, Boris meeting Bride and the end explosion. If you ran the projector at silent speed it may have played for five minutes. Or backwards....

I kept my paper route up until the last week in Deerfield, and the unbelievable did happen. The station showed The Bride just one week before we moved! It lived up to all expectations and is my favorite of all the Universal horrors. That's not too original as The Bride is many fans' favorite. I later owned a 16mm print of the film (I believe the first 16mm I ever bought) and showed it often to friends and my early-1970s film society.

I am partial to The Mummy as my second favorite Universal horror because of the terrific mummy-comes-to-life sequence and the superb make-up and acting of Karloff throughout.

I started this column intending to write about the rarest movie poster in the world that is being auctioned next month for a lot of money, one assumes. Yes, it's a Bride of Frankenstein one-sheet poster, but it is NOT the one shown here. This poster sold for a mere $334,600.00 in 2007.

Next time I will discuss the more valuable Bride poster.

PS. I won't be bidding.

Visit my website at www.fesfilms.com.

The Perfect Spook Show...

... was sure not the one I saw in high school around 1963!

It's Halloween again, which brings back childhood memories of canvassing every single home in the small town of Deerfield, Wisconsin, or rather the houses with lights on, in the mid-1950s. The small town of 700 or so still had quite a few houses for an 8 year old with a pillow case to cover. I must have been under ten because the town soon initiated "parties" in the high school gym. I remember those as well, but without the darkness, the cold, the running from house to house and the heavy bag of candy by night's end.

I also recall with envy the newspaper ads for Halloween horror movies in nearby Madison, reprisals of Frankenstein/Dracula double features and who knows what else. The ads always looked great, likely better than the films if it was "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" meets "I Married a Monster from Outer Space." Similar horror midnight shows surfaced every Friday the 13th as well, but I never got to any because movie trips to Madison only took place during the day, and horror films were strictly taboo until I got into high school and could watch any films I could get to on my own.

Horror film revivals were also featured from the 1930s through the mid-1960s in SPOOK SHOWS. After a chilling double feature, these live stage shows featured a magician and real, live, famous movie monsters who came into the audience when the lights blacked out. They were promoted (between the lines) to bring a date and sneak in some smooching between the screams.

You can read all about this lost era in "Ghost Masters" from Amazon.com. "This is a book that makes me want to don a gorilla suit and rip apart a blonde with my bare claws. It's a true history of my artistic idols: the mad doctors and maniacal magicians who toured with live midnight fright shows, and scared the bejeezus out of hormone-pumped teenagers on dates. In my opinion, an absolute must-read for horror and magic fans." --Teller of Penn & Teller

Some fun movie posters like the two above can be viewed Here.

There's a wonderful video compilation about these shows called Monsters Crash the Pajama Party. "Grab the kids, lower the lights, and turn every night into Halloween with the Monsters Crash the Pajama Party Spook Show Spectacular! It's a Spookaroo Whoop-de-doo with this Terrorific 3-hour-plus Spooktacular containing everything you need for your very own Spook Party! First, join some terrified teens who spend a night in a haunted house and get spooked by a mad doctor and his ghoulish gang when the Monsters Crash the Pajama Party, a hilarious 1965 theatrical featurette complete with werewolf, gorilla in a fur coat, and goofy gimmick! Then, feel your eyes pop out of their sockets when you check into The Asylum of the Insane, a startling short subject with monsters in 3-D Spookarama (3-D glasses included)! But that's not all! This scary, screwy, chill-arious fright show includes bonus shorts, Spook Show previews, audio commentaries, How to Put on Your Own Spook Show, music by The Dead Elvi, and much more--plus the bonus feature-length chiller-diller Tormented!"

My family moved to Madison in time for me to attend high school. I could see lots more movies in theaters, about anything I wanted as the bus trips were short and direct, and yes, I caught one of the last Spook Shows. Anticipation high; packed theater; hopes dashed. I can't remember the double feature for starters, so likely no monsters -- maybe some British film like "Burn, Witch, Burn!" The stage show was a hypnotist who took volunteers from the audience. This went on forever. Only one teenage boy really went under, ha-ha, a plant and the climax of the act was when his pants came off! Then Frankenstein's monster came onstage, the theater went pitch black, lots of screaming, houselights on and go home. Mainly I remember the disappointment. In retrospect, no wonder -- I did not have a date to make out with!

I had not thought about my Spook Show experience in quite awhile, not until today. I realize it may be behind my desire to show young people a good time with the old horror films in a theater. I got the chance this past week when a new customer, the Arabian Theater in Alabama, asked for a horror show for next Saturday, Oct. 30. Since Halloween proper is on Sunday this year, Saturday is the best day for a film show. After some discussion, we settled on a 3 to 3 1/2 hour show from 6 to 9:30 pm or so that kids could come or go to throughout the evening. I came up with a two-disc show. The second part is "White Zombie" which is genuinely spooky with lots of zombie monsters but no blood or brain-eating. Moody but a bit slow, which is OK since if anyone doesn't get into it and leaves in the middle they will have already seen 90 minutes of cartoons and classic monster trailers.

The first half of the show contains:
Sure-Locked Homes -- Felix the Cat, 1928
The Mechanical Man -- Oswald Rabbit, 1932
Is My Palm Read? -- Betty Boop, 1933
Gypped in Egypt -- Tom & Jerry, 1930
Superman Cartoons -- Underground World & The Mummy Strikes for a little color.
The Mad Doctor -- Walt Disney Mickey Mouse, 1933
The cartoons are interspersed with horror trailers for: Robot Monster, White Zombie, The Giant Claw, King Kong, Dracula, Frankenstein and others, plus Buster Keaton in “The Haunted House” (1921). The Keaton short is not spooky, but is a perfect chance to expose kids to silent comedy. I suspect it will be the big hit of the evening!


Visit my website at www.fesfilms.com.