Swithin

RM, I think the point is that if TCM bans you, using your IP address, you would need to go elsewhere -- like a library where you can get free access -- to log on, with a different IP address. I would actually be interested in knowing -- TCM would know this -- if any of the posters here with different names have the same address. If so, I would guess they are probably the same person, not a different poster in the same household.

*Drood* was on December 5. Many of us had been requesting it, I took it's debut as a response to requests and discussions on this board. I recorded it. Yes, it's horror genre -- that's how I first saw it, years ago, on the old Shock Theater television series in NY. I think I agree with you about the three films you mention. Of course the best example of hysterical laughter in a film is in The Mummy (1932), when Bramwell Fletcher laughs himself to death. But that's not comedy, it's pure horror/terror: "He went for a little walk...you should have seen his face!"

In the threads which address TCM hosts, etc., I generally come down on the side of not wanting too much chat -- from Robert O., or Ben, or anyone (a little goes a long way). But I think it would be interesting to show a bunch of zombie films and have a scholar discuss the the concept of zombies in folklore/tradition, particularly in Haiti, and how the films reflect that. It's a fascinating subject which has a body of scholarship to turn to (Metraux' book et. al.) as well as sensationalist literature, including Seabrook's The Magic Island, an early work which helped introduce the concept into the American consciousness.

Zombies can't eat salt. in anthropologist Alfred Metraux' seminal book, *Voodoo in Haiti*, one of my favorite books in college, Metraux reports: "If imprudently they are given a plate which contains even a grain of salt the fog which cloaks their minds instantly clears away and they become conscious of their terrible servitude. Realization rouses in them a vast rage and an ungovernable desire for vengeance. They hurl themselves on their master, kill him, destroy his property and then go in search of their tombs." Or, to put it in film terms, as Samantha says to Jeff in *King of the Zombies*, "If a zombie eats salt, he dries up and gets dead again."

Like many cast members of Werewolf of London, Hobson was also in the same director's (Stuart Walker's) other 1935 film, the atmospheric Mystery of Edwin Drood.

Didn't know that, you're right, just looked it up. Valerie had a bit of trouble later in life -- her husband was John Profumo.

I love Aunt Ettie, and of course the two ladies in the pub -- Ethel Griffies and Zeffie Tilbury. One of my favorite lines, spoken to Dr. Glendon by a woman at the flower show, when he tells her a certain plant comes from Java: "I simply jitter to go to Java, simply jitter!" Then Aunt Ettie enters and mimics the line.

I think the Preatorius/Henry duo is way more obvious even than the Yogami/Glendon duo. Some say that Bride is a film about two men wanting to have a baby! Bride's opening scenes -- with Mary Shelley, her husband, and Lord Byron -- show Byron and Shelley in one shot, Shelley in the countershot. It's obvious that (as history tells us) Byron and Shelley were having an affair, leaving Mary out in the cold; the Praetorious/Henry match-up mirrors that.

Also that very strange scene in which they're looking at each other, it's very unusual.

An interesting gay subtex -- though it was 1935, and you need to look deep -- is in Werewolf of London, perhaps my favorite werewolf movie. There are some shots that clearly indicate that, from a very unusual scene between Dr. Glendon and Dr. Yogami at the garden party; to the way Glendon, in his werewolf mode, jumps on his pray near the end of the film.

I didn't know that Cohen produced *Horrors of the Black Museum*, which I saw when I was a boy. Who can forget that early scene with the binoculars? Years later, through a mutual friend in London, I met Graham Curnow, who had played Michael Gough's young assistant. Lovely man -- told the most outrageous jokes! He died several years ago; his partner, the actor Victor Spinetti, died earlier this year.

I like word games, puns, plays on words, etc., so I found it very funny! Things that can be taken in more than one way. I didn't realize there were issues between you, But seriously, I think it's harder to make a list of underrated films than one of overrated films. There was a thread a while back about underrated actors, and the responses were really not about actors who were underrated; just somewhat lesser known. I guess I could come up with all the obscure films I love and call them underrated for the purposes of this thread.

Actually, that's very funny! :^0

Haven't seen The She Creature since I was about six years old, but now I want to see it again! It sounds BAD in the best sense!

Walter Connolly is one of my favorites! I particularly like him as the exasperated head of a newsreel company (and Clark Gable's boss) in Too Hot Too Handle.

My father took me to see The She Creature when I was a small boy. It was on a double bill with It Conquered the World, an early Corman movie. I loved both films. Voodoo Woman is one of my favorite Cahn films, about a woman from Pittsburgh who goes into the African jungle looking for treasure and is turned into a monster by a mad scientist. Do you think we can say Cahn is an early feminist film maker?

The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake is another rarity, to be seen in October. Haven't seen it in the years -- interesting cast, including Eduard Franz, Lumsden Hare, Henry Daniell, and Paul Cavanagh. I recall it as having an eerie kind of atmosphere, in a late '50s horror sort of way.

A Room with a View next: an advice to the lovelorn columnist

I assumed they would ban the IP address, not just the user name. One could still get around that, but it would be more difficult.

Btw, I was joking about the volunteer thing. And the marine thing comes from a posting he made a few weeks ago.

Maybe not THAT important but important.

Michael gets paid? I thought he was a volunteer, waiting to join the marines. How did I get that idea? ; :^0

I would assume that ratings are very important to TCM. Even organizations that are not strictly speaking "commercial," or for profit, need to know that they are reaching an audience. Where I live, in NYC, our non-profit institutions -- free libraries, museums, health organizations -- are obsessed with metrics. Those who provide services need to know that the services are being used. That may be partly due to funding issues, partly because it is generally an important -- sometimes the only -- measure of the success of the non-profit in a very competitive climate. I've also heard the idea from posters on this board who think that, apart from the moderator, TCM staff do not care about or view this board. I suspect that is a ridiculous assumption. Any organization that has such a valuable user tool, no matter what proportion of "customers" use it, is a great boon to the organization in many ways.

I'm thrilled that *Vampyr* is being shown (October 7), but why is it being called by the odd alternative title ( Not Against the Flesh )?

I remember watching the AFI tribute to Bette Davis, in 1977. William Wyler was one of the speakers, and he talked briefly about he and Davis would argue about how a certain scene should be played in Jezebel. It's too bad TCM didn't exist then, imagine having those two have that discussion in conjunction with a TCM screening!