UK

 

(imdb)

DEAD OF NIGHT-1945-An architect Craig (Mervyn Johns) visits a countryside cottage where he gets a big rush of Deja Vu. He says he's met the group of people there in his dreams. Thus begins this anthology.

1. “The Hearse Driver”-Race car driver Hugh Grainer (Anthony Baird) suffers a near fatal accident. Later, a dream saves his life. Just like a future “Twilight Zone” episode, directed by Basil Dearden.

2. “The Christmas Party”-At a party for young people, Sally (Sally Ann Howes) finds a secret room where a young boy Francis is crying and says his stepsister is trying to kill him. Directed by Alberto Cavalcanti. This is adapted from a story by Angus MacPhail, which in turn is based on a true story.

3. “The Haunted Mirror”-A wife (Googie Withers) buys her husband (Ralph Michael) a mirror. When he looks in it, he sees the background of a completely different room. He seems to be taken over by the spirit of the former wife killing owner. Directed by Robert Hamer.

4. “The Golfer's Story”-Two friends George Parratt (Basil Radford) and Larry Potter (Nauton Wayne), both golfers, play a round for the love of a woman named Mary (Peggy Bryan). Parratt wins and Potter commits suicide. After he marries Mary and goes to play some golf, he hears Potter's voice mocking him and calling him a cheat. This is actually a lighthearted ghost comedy directed by Charles Crichton and based on a story by HG Welles.

5. “The Ventriloquist's Dummy”-Frere (Michael Redgrave), a ventriloquist, is accused of trying to kill another ventriloquist named Sylvester (Hartley Power) but he blames his dummy Hugo, who seems to have a life of his own. Standout segment directed by Alberto Cavalcanti.

In the nightmarish wraparound finale, Craig isn't what he seems to be….

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Nobody Asked Me But....

Books I'd like to recommend. A little something for everyone!

 

Switcheroo

 

 (imdb)

DOCTOR JEKYLL & SISTER HYDE-1971-During the Jack the Ripper time, Dr. Henry Jekyll (Ralph Bates; in LUST FOR A VAMPIRE the same year) writes a testimonial that turns into a flashback. Jekyll is working on an anti-virus vaccine. When the pompous but crazy Prof. Robertson (Gerald Sim) says it would take too long to perfect his serum, Jekyll becomes obsessed with doing it quicker, working day and night continuously. He's experimenting with female hormones using corpses from a morgue. When he runs out of corpses, he hires Burke (Ivor Dean) & Hare (Tony Calvin) to help him. You know what that means. After some experiments with flies, Jekyll takes his own concoction and becomes a woman (Martine Beswick). She becomes Jack The Ripper in this early gender bender horror story directed by Roy Ward Baker and written by Brian Clemens for Hammer Pictures.

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You Say Iorga, I Say Yorga

 

 (the moviedb.org)

THE LOVES OF COUNT IORGA, VAMPIRE-aka COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE-1970-At a botched seance trying to help a woman named Donna (Donna Anders), the medium Count Yorga (Robet Quarry) is later revealed to be a vampire. He puts the bite on a woman named Erica (Judy Lang). Her boyfriend Paul (Michael Murphy) suspects the count. A doctor named Jim Hayes (Roger Perry) examines Erica and finds her anemic with two puncture wounds on her neck. Later Paul and his friend Mike (producer Michael McCready) find Erica eating a rat (?). With his odd servant Brutah (Edward Walsh), Yorga plans to make Erica his eternal bride. After Paul is captured, Donna, Paul and Hayes go to the count with the plan of keeping him up until sunrise! That doesn't work. Yorga captures Donna and Hayes confronts Yorga. The doctor becomes a victim of the Count's vampire brides (including Marsha Jordan), leaving Mike to destroy the count. He succeeds but….

Vampire narration by George McCready (Michael's father). I never really cared for this movie. It's drawn out but effective at times. Supposedly planned as a soft-core porn film, it was later changed to straight horror but still maintains a kind of cheap porno atmosphere. Could have been better but considering the time….

Former actor Bob Kelljan made SCREAM, BLACULA, SCREAM in 1973 but worked mainly in TV.

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Bava

 

 (the moviedb.org)

BLACK SABBATH-1963-Three tales of terror are hosted by Boris Karloff in this Italian American co-production presented by AIP. 

The Drop of Water-A woman (Jacqueline Pierreux) is terrorized in her apartment after stealing a ring off a dead woman. Dripping water, weird lights and the dead woman seemingly back for revenge all help in the thief's demise. Credited as based on a story by Anton Chekov but he never wrote such a story.

The Telephone-A woman named Rosie (Michele Mercier) receives threatening phone calls from a man she thought was dead. Credited as a story by Tolstoy but not Leo, the author of “War and Peace” but a minor author Aleksei.

The Wurdaluk-A man (Mark Damon) stays with a family and awaits the return of their grandfather (Boris Karloff) who may now be a vampire. Based on a story by Guy de Maupassant. Usually said to be the only time King Karloff played a vampire.

Mario Bava directed this using lots of style and clever camera work. The original Italian version has a different story order, different music and alternate narration by Karloff. Plus an unusual ending for the vampire story. Bava made THE WHIP AND THE BODY the same year.

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Silent Talkie

 

 (tcm.com)

THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND-1929-Count Dakkar (Lionel Barrymore) is a brilliant scientist who along with his daughter Sonia (Jacqueline Gadsden) and her fiancé Roget (Lloyd Hughes) invents fantastic submarines to go look for a civ-ilization deep in the sea. But he's betrayed by his friend Baron Falon (Montagu Love) who wants to be dictator of nearby Hetvania. 

This silent film has several scenes with characters speaking and their voyage to a strange undersea kingdom populated by fish men is quite eerie as is a giant octopus attack. Some prints featured tinted color scenes. The SFX are great for the time but some of the scenes with dialogue drag a little. Most likely only used simply because the advent of sound interrupted the production. Snitz Edwards and Gibson Gowland also appear. 

It's loosely based on the 1874 Jules Verne novel of the same name which was a sequel to "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea". A more faithful remake was made in 1961. 

This is only one of three movies directed by Lucien Hubbard who went on to become a producer and writer. A few added scenes were directed by Maurice Tourneur and Benjamin Christensen.

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Von Stroheim

 

 (imdb)

THE CRIME OF DR. CRESPI-1935-Teutonic, grouchy, self-assured Dr. Crespi (Erich Von Stroheim; 2 years before GRAND ILLUSION) agrees to operate on his former lover's husband Stephen Ross (John Bohn), a highly decorated doctor who used to be Crespi's assistant. The operation is a success but Ross dies anyway. Or does he? It seems Crespi is a mad scientist who injected Ross with a drug that makes him appear dead when in fact he can see and hear everything. Crespi wants him buried alive and even gloats about it to Ross' prone body. Ross is buried but is inadvertently saved when Dr. Thomas (Dwight Frye; in BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN the same year) exhumes the body believing Crespi poisoned Ross. Hungarian born John H. Auer directed this creaky melodramatic sort of horror tale with the credit “suggested” by Edgar Allan Poe's “The Premature Burial”.

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