Swithin
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Posts posted by Swithin
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Smolkin the Gravedigger in The Undead. Played by Mel Welles, the character has been likened to the Fool in King Lear.
Allison Hayes (left) as the wicked witch; Dorothy Neumann (right) as the good witch
"I am thy match, witch, but I am not thy kind!"
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On Svengoolie tomorrow, Saturday, April 3, 2021:
At last, one of my favorite Roger Corman movies, in all its low budget glory!
Billy Barty and Allison Hayes
Diana Love, the Prostitute at the lamp post, played by Pamela DuncanThe Undead dancing girlsLoosely Inspired by the best-selling 1954 book The Search for Bridey Murphy, The Undead opens with a psychic researcher (played by Val Dufour) picking up a prostitute. He takes her to see his old teacher, who has evidently been waiting seven years for him. The skeptical teacher witnesses his former pupil placing the prostitute into a trance. The prostitute remembers another one of her lives, in the Middle Ages, where she is accused of witchcraft. That’s just the beginning. Once we get to the Middle Ages, we meet a beautiful bad witch (Allison Hayes) and an ugly good witch (Dorothy Neumann). Also a simple-minded but poetic gravedigger (Mel Welles, who went on to play Gravis Mushnick in Corman’s Little Shop of Horrors a few years later.); and many other fascinating characters, including an imp (Billy Barty), and of course Satan (Richard Devon).This is an enjoyable, imaginative movie, not without hints of feminism, unusual for the tame 1950s. Read a few of the positive user reviews from IMDB, and learn about its greatness:-
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7) His Broadway debut was in New Faces of 1952, where one of his roles was as the Judge in the Lizzie Borden sequence. ("You can't chop your poppa up in Massachusetts.")
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56 minutes ago, Hibi said:
So did anyone guess who the werewolf was? Plenty of red herrings. I didnt. Maybe if I hadnt missed the beginning I might have seen more clues. Loved the werewolf break!
I didn't watch consistently, but there was a clue near the beginning, when Michael Gambon, who played the werewolf, tries to escape. Gambon went on to much more impressive roles. I've seen him on stage as Uncle Vanya, as Falstaff, and as Volpone, and in many other fine performances, in addition to his television work.
Btw, Cushing refers to "ilkienda," "an itchiness of the skin." Is that a real word? I have to go to the dermatologist in a week or so, and I want to mention that my hands itch, due to dry weather and steam heat in my apartment. Can I just say to the doctor that I'm suffering from iklienda? Googling is no help, it just leads me to the movie.
Michael Gambon as Falstaff, National Theatre, London, 2005
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"Some of These Days" -- Only Angels Have Wings (1939) -- [great scene from a great movie]
Next: Song from a movie directed by Fred Zinnemann
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"Brookfield School Song" -- Goodbye Mr. Chips (1939)
Song comes in at the 1:10 point.
Next: Song from a movie directed by Henry Hathaway
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The Maze (1953) -- in 3D! (Saw it at the Film Forum two years ago, in a series of films partly selected by Martin Scorsese and Jay C_ocks.)
Next: Banking
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Almodovar's Dark Habits has a few choice nuns:
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I began to watch Calling Philo Vance (1940) when it was on TCM the other day, then realized it was a remake of The Kennel Murder Case (1933), so switched it off.
Instead, I watched The Dragon Murder Case (1934), which I think I have seen before, but which is great fun. A mansion filled with people, most of whom don't like each other; a pool party where three men dive in, only two come out (of a very strange pool!) The film features as nutty and enjoyable a cast as you'd expect to find in a Philo Vance movie. Warren William excels as Vance, but the two most delightful characters are Eugene Pallette as Sgt. Heath, the bumbling inspector; and Etienne Girardot as Dr. Doremus, the exasperated coroner, who is always getting called away from his meals. The interplay between Heath and Doremus is hilarious. Pallette played Sgt. Heath in six movies; Girardot played Doremus in three films. Kudos also to Helen Lowell, as a mad old lady.
Lyle Talbot is a major supporting character; mysterious at first, benevolent in fact. An odd thing: someone says to him, nastily, "That's just what I would expect from someone of your race." That's referred to once more, but there's no mention, as far as I could tell, of what his race is supposed to be.
Two exchanges between Girardot (Doremus) and Pallette (Heath):
Dr. Doremus: Ernest, it's clear that you don't know much about women. Now I'll tell you, women are, generally speaking...
Sergeant Ernest Heath: You certainly said it! They ARE generally speaking!
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Dr. Doremus: [Leaving the scene, thoroughly annoyed that the body was not dead] Now I'm going to get some breakfast...
[turning for one last word]
Dr. Doremus: ... and, Heath, don't you call me out here again unless you've got a corpse. I'm here as a coroner, not as a doctor!
Sergeant Ernest Heath: [shouting after him sarcastically] Why don't you learn to carry a hard-boiled egg in your pocket?
Eugene Pallette, Warren William, Etienne Girardot
Helen Lowell, Lyle Talbot, Warren William
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The Black Cat (1934)
Next: Ointment
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"Rock of Ages" -- Cat Ballou (1965)
Another song with some geological reference
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Thwackum -- Peter Bull in Tom Jones (1963)
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49 minutes ago, Sepiatone said:
My Dad(who was really my stepfather) had an older sister who was a nun( in her case then, twice a sister
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It's too bad she wasn't a nurse in England. She could have been three times a sister!
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The Return of the Vampire (1943) -- Frieda Inescort
Next: A slutty man
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The beautiful Anne Heywood played a nun in two movies: The Nun and the Devil (1973); and The Awful Story of the Nun of Monza (1969). Both of these films have other titles. The Nun of Monza is based on a true story.
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Roy Scheider was in Naked Lunch with Judy Davis.
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Here is a bit of Peter Cushing's medical explanation regarding werewolfry, from script.com. He goes further and makes all kinds of claims that have little to do with our received knowledge from so many werewolf movies:
"Each man, each woman has a mass of glands in the throat, here, the lymphatic glands. Once it served a purpose, to secrete into the bloodstream a hormone, a fluid called lymph. Now, this gland is a vital element in the condition that creates a werewolf. The fluid it releases is a colorless alkaline resembling blood but containing no red corpuscles. Once conveyed into the bloodstream, it causes the disease, for disease it is, which produces the werewolf. The werewolf is totally unable to deny the urge to feed on human flesh. The primary symptoms are the growing of more body hair, and, oh, what is the word? Iklienda, ah, yes, the itchiness of the skin.
As the lymphatic hormone breaks down, the molecular structure of the blood through the victim -- and make no mistake, the werewolf is a victim -- begins to change identity. Now, first the eyes, red, like those of a mad dog, then, the body also. Finally, when the transmogrification is complete, the urge to eat human flesh is uncontrollable. It's appetite must be assuaged."
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Nita Talbot was in Who's Got the Action? with Margo.
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1 hour ago, Polly of the Precodes said:
Whooooooo's a good werewolf? Who? Who? Are youuuuuuuu a good werewolf?
I thought Peter Cushing's technical explanation about how one becomes a werewolf was almost as hilarious as his accent!
And who gets the award for the best dog-dressed-as-a-monster? The nominees are The Beast Must Die andThe Killer Shrews.
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Confession (1937)
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Before I went to Ireland, I read a brochure in the Irish Tourist Authority in London. Referring to Ireland, it said "The people are homely." I didn't think that was very nice, or a good way to attract tourists, but later learned that in the UK at least, the word meant comfortable, cozy, etc., so a nice adjective.
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8 minutes ago, TomJH said:
For one brief moment you knew what it was like to be a celebrity. Did any of the girls as you for an autograph just in case you were one?
No, they stopped screaming and were clearly disappointed. I would have been more interested in meeting Paul Eddington and Felicity Kendal, who were the stars of the play.
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I've worked with many "classic stars" and won't bore with those stories, but here's one in line with this thread:
Many years ago (1985), I went to see a production of Tom Stoppard's play Jumpers at the Aldwych Theatre in London. During the interval, I had to go to the loo. I walked up the stairs to the men's room and saw a bunch of girls standing outside. That seemed odd. I went in, and there was Tom Selleck standing there. He was just standing there, and I gathered that he had used the facilities but was waiting for the bells to ring for the next act of the play, before venturing out of the men's room. He said hello to me, and I said hi. He was still standing there, in a corner of the men's room, when I left. When I opened the door to leave, the girls screamed! They thought it was Tom Selleck. But it was just me, so they stop screaming.
Selleck was evidently in London shooting some Magnum, P.I. episodes.
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The user reviews on IMDB are surprising good:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071200/reviews?ref_=tt_ov_rt
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on svengoolie tonite
in General Discussions
Posted
Satan has the first and last word in The Undead.