“And Then They'll Come For You!”

HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL-1959-William Castle's "classic gimmick" ghost story stars Vincent Price as millionaire Frederick Loren who at the request of his cold hateful wife Annabelle (Carol Omart) challenges 6 strangers to stay all night in a supposedly haunted house where several murders have occurred. If they can do it they'll each receive 10 thousand dollars. The "guests" include a pilot (Richard Long), a secretary (Carolyn Craig), a psychiatrist (Alan Marshall), a newspaper columnist (Julie Mitchum) and  Watson Pritchard (Elisha Cook) the last person to have stayed in the house and survived. He talks a lot about ghosts and murders committed in the place but if you watched this as a little kid in the '60's like I did you'll never forget the scene where the Mrs. Slydes, the caretaker's wife (Leona Anderson) meets the secretary in a dark room. Her grimace popping out of the darkness probably sent some kids screaming from the room! A chandelier falls, there's a vat of acid in the basement, guns in mini-coffins and a twist ending with a skeleton that when shown in theaters in the '50's came out of the screen and passed over the audience. 

Director William Castle and star Vincent Price (screenwriter Robb White) also made the THE TINGLER the same year. 

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The Maddest Story Ever Told!

SPIDER BABY or THE MADDEST STORY EVER TOLD-1968-This quirky black and white horror film may not be the maddest but it's certainly one of the strangest!It starts out with the legendary Lon Chaney singing the title theme over the credits!

The story concerns the Merrye family who suffer from "Merrye Syndrome", a genetic disorder caused by inbreeding. Lon Chaney is great as Bruno the insanely smiling family caretaker, chauffeur and guardian of the three Merrye children: Ralph (Sid Haig, still doing mostly TV at this time), a bald mute lunatic, the homicidal Elizabeth (Beverley Washburn) and the spider obsessed Virginia (Jill Banner). A few cannibalistic aunts and uncles also live in a pit in their basement. After Virginia kills a messenger (the great Mantan Moreland) the family is visited by Peter (Quinn Redecker) and Emily Howe (Carol Ohmart from THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL) distant relatives who want the family house. Also along is their weaselly lawyer Mr. Schlocker (Karl Schanzer) and his secretary Ann (Mary Mitchel). When the guests decide to stay for dinner Ralph kills a cat so they have food to serve. Though everyone else acts disgusted and snobby, Peter seems oblivious to the macabre surroundings. He's very cheerful and nice to his hosts. After Peter takes Ann out for a drink Schocker snoops around.  The girls slice him up because he doesn't like spiders ("This isn't right. There are proper procedures!"). Later the girls chase Emily (clan in black underwear) through the forest and Ralph rapes her (off-screen). When Peter and Mary return Elizabeth and Ralph kidnap Mary while Virginia ties Peter up and does her spider dance. Emily now crazy finds Ralph and blinds him. Peter manages to break his bonds and flee with Mary just before Bruno blows the place up. Peter (who narrates at the beginning and the end) 10 years later lives happily ever after with his Mary, now his his wife and their young daughter...or do they?  

SPIDER BABY was pretty much ignored in it's initial release (according to director Jack Hill it was hard to get a distributor because by 1968 black and white films were out of date) but since then it's become a cult movie and it's easy to see why. Chaney really throws himself into his demented role lecturing the murdering brood:  "How many times have I told you it's not nice to hate?" "How many times do I have to tell you just because something isn't good doesn't mean it's bad!"  His career was really almost non-existent by this point and his health problems were getting worse but he still puts in a memorable performance.

It's really strange to see a once funny guy like Mantan Moreland getting stabbed to death while caught in a window. It's not graphic though except for a quick shot of his severed ear. He made a few more movie and TV appearances before dying in 1973. Quinn Redeker was a familiar TV actor and screenwriter who was nominated for an Academy Award in 1978 for co-writing THE DEERHUNTER. Both Karl Schanzer and Mary Mitchel had been in DEMENTIA 13 in 1963. Beverley Washburn was a former child actress who was on many TV shows. Her Elizabeth is very whacky and frightening.

But Jill Banner steals the whole show as the alluring, innocent but bloodthirsty Virginia who really loves her spiders. She was in a few other movies (THE PRESIDENT'S ANALYST & A MAN, A HORSE, A GUN) and TV shows (she was in around 5 episodes of DRAGNET!) but quit acting soon after. She was killed in a car accident in 1982.

Director Jack Hill made this around the same time he filmed Boris Karloff's American scenes for his last 4 film appearances (produced in Mexico).

http://www.spiderbabyonline.com/

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Actually There's No Party..

THE WILD PARTY-1956-Anthony Quinn stars in this grim melodrama the same year he played Quasimodo in the French production of THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME. Here he plays Ton Kuphen, a loony ex-football player-loser reduced to petty crime. His pals include fruity con-man Gage (Jay Robinson), broke jazz pianist Kicks (Nehemiah Persoff who narrates) and Honey (Kathryn Grant), Tom's spacey semi-innocent girlfriend. They terrorize a society couple, a Navy lieutenant (Arthur Franz) and his rich fiancee (Carol Ohmart, later Vincent Price's wife on HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL)) who Kuphen becomes obsessed with. The four "beats" talk annoying jive in this lurid and racy (I guess for the time) drama with a disappointing finale. Paul Stewart and Barbara Nichols appear in one scene together and Nestor Paiva has a small role.

The jazz score is by Buddy Bregman and Barney Kessell. Maynard Ferguson and Bud Shank appear in an un-credited on-screen band. Director Harry Horner had made RED PLANET MARS and BEWARE, MY LOVELY and was also production designer on many films.

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