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Happy Halloween!🎃

Happy Halloween Everybody.

Heaven Can Wait (1943) The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) Ghost (1990) Ghost Dad (1990) Just Like Heaven (2005) The Lovely Bones (2009)

While her name might not register with a lot of film buffs today, I think that the sensationally sensual Carol Ohmart deserves recognition for her performance (as well as attire) in House on Haunted Hill as Vincent Price's wife with whom he has a less than completely loving relationship. Ohmart had a brief spate of sexy blonde roles in the '50s and '60s, with this probably her best remembered film role. She did a lot of TV work at the time, as well. I can't recall if this scene actually occurs on the film but, if it doesn't, it should have. Okay, so she prefers guys that eat well

Happy Halloween, David!

Topper (1937) Wuthering Heights (1939) Our Town (1940) An American Werewolf in London (1981) Truly, Madly, Deeply (1990) Death Becomes Her (1992) What Dreams May Come (1998) The Sixth Sense (1999) South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999) (Kenny) The Lake House (2006)

Yea, it was great to see these two fine films and hear Eddie comment on them.

Some background information on the film, including a quote from TCM's SVP of Programming, Charles Tabesh: https://www.astheearthturns.com/

Throw out your hands Stick out your tush Hands on your hips Give 'em a push

My guilty pleasure is Caveman (1981).

One I'm not even ashamed to admit I like a lot is One Million B.C. (1940). It had some pretty pioneering special effects for the time, for which it was nominated for an Oscar, and foreshadowed a lot of similar films by a generation. I found the trick photography with enlarged live reptiles quite effective and entertaining. Also, technically more scientifically accurate than its successors, as humans never walked the earth at the same time as dinosaurs, but did exist simultaneously with gigantic predatory lizards. Where it suffers is in not committing to one approach. I think it could have been successful with just the trick photography of live reptiles, but then it muddies it up by having a guy in a suit playing an allosaurus and a pig (yes, pig!) in a suit playing a triceratops, and a live elephant covered in fake mammoth fur. That phoniness juxtaposed with footage of actual reptiles which are (however outsized) in fact real, just shatters any suspension of disbelief. Still more's the pity that they couldn't have foregone both these approaches and sprung for some King Kong style Willis O'Brien stop motion! But the special effects as such are great fun. You get to see an actual fight to the death between a baby alligator and a tegu, literally one of the scenes that prompted the campaign for the ethical treatment of animals on film, and later a bunch reptiles being chucked into fracturing ground during a cataclysmic eruption. Concurrently, there's a scene in which Native Hawaiian actress Mamo Clark (one of very few Polynesian working actors in the Golden Age of Hollywood), gets engulfed by a lava flow that still haunts me to this day; very effective and genuinely horrifying in its brutality; see 1:08 on Youtube:

Lane, Elizabeth -- played by Barbara Stanwyck in CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT (1945)

Plus Nanny and the Professor, Bourbon Street Beat and. 77 Sunset Strip. His wife was Mara Corday, a Universal contract actress. He didn't want her to work and put the brakes on her acting career.

I have always disliked one of the actresses you mention, and been a big fan of the other. I've always found Katharine Hepburn irritating; she almost always strikes me as smug, a bit like the Tracy Lord character she portrays so convincingly in The Philadelphia Story. Tracy is "perfect", or thinks she is. I actually like this film, and Hepburn's performance in it, but I do think no one could have played Tracy better in part because she seems so suited to Katharine Hepburn's persona. Anyway, I don't dislike Hepburn as much as I used to -- I used to loathe her. Now I can watch and even enjoy quite a few of her films (including, yes, Alice Adams ). But she'll always be one of my least favourite actresses from the "classic" era. Now, Lucille Ball is a whole different story ( and not the Philadelphia one, either. sorry.) I like her as much as I dislike Hepburn. Lucy was so talented and clever. So was Katharine Hepburn, but Lucy was also extremely likable. In fact, I enjoy just about everything I've ever seen Lucille Ball in; she always makes whatever she's in more entertaining. Having "said my piece" about each of these actresses, I will say, I don't think TCM should "retire" either of them or their films , " for a while" . Just because I don't like Katharine Hepburn doesn't mean there aren't people out there who do, and I'm sure they appreciate TCM's airing her work. There are lots of actors I'm not crazy about or am indifferent to, but just because I'm not interested in them doesn't mean I want TCM to stop showing their films. I watch something TCM airs when I think I'll enjoy it, and find something else to watch or do ( like read, for instance) when I don't. I know there are always many people who watch TCM who are fans of actors, directors, producers, who I don't like. But I wouldn't want to deprive them of seeing artists they like on the station, just because I don't share their enthusiasm .

Wonder Bar (1934) The Green Pastures (1936) A Guy Named Joe (1943) Always (1989) Defending Your Life (1991) What Dreams May Come (1998) Down to Earth (2001)

In honour of the Hallowe'en season, my husband and I decided to have a William Castle fest. We own a set of Castle films on dvd, and we decided it was time to re-watch some of them. I won't "review" them all on this post, I'll just talk about one of his campiest ( and that's really saying something, since this guy was the King of "scary" camp): The House on Haunted Hill . This has to be one of the silliest, ( but in a good way ), campiest "horror" films of all time. I mean, you know you're in for both of those things (silly and campy) when you see that it stars Vincent Price. Who doesn't love Vincent Price? He and Castle were a good match, since they both revelled shamelessly in good clean schlock. Sometimes Mr. Price was in a "serious" movie, please don't think I'm "dissing" either of these guys. I absolutely love both Vincent Price's and William Castle's work. Anyway, don't try to figure out the plot of The House on Haunted Hill , since I'm not sure it would hold together if you tried to make sense of it. Suffice to say, it involves a group of seven people, four men and three women ( including Price's character and his wife), who commit to spend the night in Price's haunted house. If they survive the night, they each receive the handsome stipend of $10,000. dollars. There's a lot of crazy and obviously rigged scary effects, like the blind housekeeper who apparently rolls around on wheels, a hanged woman dangling from the rafters, a severed head turning up in one of the guests' suitcases,....stuff like that. I'm afraid I can't say it's very frightening, but I don't believe it's intended to be. I think it's all meant to be funny, and it is...at least, I've seen it about 3 times now, and it always makes me laugh. The only name actor in the film besides Price is Elisha Cook Jr., who seems to be in a different movie altogether from the rest of them. He, or his character, appear to think The House on Haunted Hill is a real ghost story, and he keeps shaking his head and murmuring about how "They're all going to get us, the ghosts want us, " etc. Everybody else seems to be in on the joke that they're acting in a kind of pastiche of a horror movie. Elisha Cook of course knows this too, but for some reason they wrote his character as someone who actually believes the mansion is haunted; he doesn't seem to realize all the hokey scary effects are the work of some of the humans staying in the castle. If you watch The House on Haunted Hill in the spirit ( hey, a pun ! ) in which it was made, you'll enjoy it very much. Just don't think about the vat of acid in the basement too much. ( I mean, why is there a vat of acid sitting around in the castle's basement? They 'splain its presence there, but not very well. ) Oh, and watch for the "Emerge-O" effect of the skeleton rising from said vat of acid. Apparently if you saw the film in a theatre, the skeleton has a 3-D effect. Scary stuff !

For second time (both COVID) in over 30 years, we are not observing Halloween. Far too many unvaccinated adults and children come to our neighborhood. Maybe next year.

Albertson, Frank

From American Cinematographer, November, 1938:

Broadcasting from radio station KBOO (666 AM on your radio dial), it's DJ B L Z-Bub, y'all, spinning my faves (and maybe yours) from The Halloween Hit Parade! Giving a candy-coated shout-out to all the Cool Ghouls who already got this party started! You cats are outtasight! This one goes out to My Main Man, the late, great Lon Chaney (Senior) who famously opined (roughly), "A clown is funny in the circus ring. But what would be the normal reaction to opening a door at midnight, and finding the same clown standing there in the moonlight?" Soiled undies? As my friend the merry mortician Burke N. Hare often says: Can you dig it?

Michael Laughlin, Who Produced ‘Two-Lane Blacktop’ and Co-Wrote ‘Town & Country,’ Dies at 82 https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/michael-laughlin-dead-two-lane-blacktop-producer-cult-classic-1235039871/ Arthur Forrest, Director on ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway?’ and ‘The Dick Cavett Show,’ Dies at 95 https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/arthur-forrest-dead-television-dick-cavett-whose-line-thats-incredible-director-producer-1235101207/

The Cat People was scary for sure. And fun as all get out. Between these two movies there were more sexy and interesting women than I could keep up with. Ever tried to play the castanets? Click clack, good luck. The castanet girl with her particular click clack rhythm was so good she will stay with me forever on. Can’t ask for any more that that.

Diana Rigg has been gone now for 13 months, but her final work just made it to the screen. Last Night in Soho, a psychological thriller/giallo horror film that opened on Friday, contained her final performance. It was mostly filmed in 2019, although there were some reshoots last summer. Her role is that of an elderly landlady who is actually a pivotal character in the film, as revealed in the film's bloody final act. For fans of Diana's, it will remind them of her turn in 1973's Theatre of Blood, but if you do see it, be forewarned because the film is pretty bonkers, starting out like a light and airy film before morphing into something along the lines of Susperia or Carnival of Souls. She's not the only 60s British icon in the film, as Terrence Stamp and Rita Tushingham also have small roles in it.

Apparently I forgot too!

I'd forgotten Cokie had died so that was welcome obit.

I gave up Halloween early on as a kid--Costumes weren't as good back then, and I just wasn't into candy. As an adult, I can appreciate parties and annual horror-movie binges, but there's an age where you just realize "Look, I've got money, I can BUY my own entire bag of Reese's Cups on the 30th."

The Hot Rock (1972) Next: Hot Cars (1956)

Happy Halloween to the "James Bond Trivia" crew - BunnyWhit, cinemaman and Peebs:

St. Elsewhere should have won best drama multiple times instead of zilch.

two thousand two hundred forty-first category Afterlife adventures THE CANTERVILLE GHOST (1944) BLITHE SPIRIT (1945) BEETLEJUICE (1988)

You and me both.

Wings of Desire (1987) (Hopefully this counts. There are angels in the film, but there aren't any scenes of heaven.)

I have been completely misunderstood here. I did not mean TCM should stop showing Lucy and Katherines films. If other people like these two actresses, fine. I don't and felt enough is enough. I like certain actresses and actors but rearely see any of their films on here. We ALL have a right to say how we feel about a certain film, or actor. I am now used to the not so kind comments. I will continue to say what I feel, or think about a film, etc.

1940 - Ellery Queen, Master Detective 1941 - Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery 1941 - Ellery Queen and the Perfect Crime Next: Anita Page & Wallace Ford

Nugent, Dick--Cary Grant in The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer

Albert Brooks finds out instead of pearly gates, there's a lot of red tape to maneuver in Defending Your Life A couple from TV: Felix immediately starts to tidy up heaven when he arrives there on The Odd Couple From Alfred Hitchcock Presents--John Williams questions how he got into heaven..."All mystery writers go to heaven" he's told...☺️

Per Mr. Gorman What makes a 'Good' horror movie really depends on what kind of horror/suspense movie you're looking to watch. I like all kinds of movies that fall under the 'Horror' banner from made-for-television movies to old-time theatrical horror release to newer horror movies, some of which are chock fulla gore! 🩸🩸 Well, you won't lack for entertainment. As I said, most movies pretending to horror bore me intensely. They're like rote exercises. That's why if the horror plays an incidental role, and the rest of the movie is good, like Theater of Blood (1973), I like it. A good TV movie I think is exceptional is called A Cold Night's Death (1973), in which Robert Culp and Eli Wallach wage a battle of nerves and psychodrama in an ice-bound monkey research lab. One of Mr. Culp's best performances. Even when you know the source of the evil stalking the lab, it's still squirm-inducing.

Morgenstern, Rhoda, played by Valerie Harper.

I think that was the reason why Castle wasn't allowed to direct Rosemary's Baby

Despite the titles The Bad Seed (1956) and Pollyanna (1960), I love both films with two very different girls! braids for the girls

THIS MAN IS MINE (1934)...THE AWFUL TRUTH (1937)...LADY IN A JAM (1942) Next: Ralph Bellamy & Margaret Lindsay

I've never heard of Richard Long, but thanks for the info about him. Is Cult of the Cobra as campy as House on Haunted Hill ? Just to mention another William Castle classic, I think one of his most famous and celebrated is 13 Ghosts. The first time I saw this was as an adult, so although I found it entertaining and , again, kind of fun, I never thought it was scary. But my husband first saw it as a kid, and he says he was terrified at the time. Now we both enjoy it for what it is, a funny, campy, appropriately "spooky" ghost story in the style that only William Castle could do so well. I know there was a re-make of 13 Ghosts, but I was never interested in seeing it. Why mess with perfection? Anyone who's seen this Castle favourite: which ghost do you think is the scariest? I like the swirling circle thing, it actually is a little frightening. The man with his head in the lion's mouth, though -- it's just funny !

For many newcomers to classic film, Lucy might be one of the few names they recognize on the channel. So it would be to TCM's benefit to showcase her films when appropriate. Often, a person will tune in to watch someone they know so they won't feel so lost watching these films from so long ago. And I doubt they "give a rest" to one of the most awarded actresses either. Big stars are always at the forefront, that's why they're big stars. Kate will always be in heavy rotation here.

A Matter of Life and Death (1946)

ICE FOLLIES OF 1939 (1939) Next: lots of explosions