Monster Rule Ok!

 

 (imdb)

THE MONSTER CLUB-1981-Aramis (Vincent Price), a vampire bites R. Chetwynd Hayes (John Carradine), the horror writer. Aramis then takes the writer to “The Monster Club” so he can get some ideas and The Viewers do “Monsters Rule OK”. After Aramis explains the genealogy of vampires and werewolves we get our first story in this anthology. A con artist couple have a scheme to swindle a lonely unusual looking guy Raven (James Laurenson) when the girl Angela (Barbara Kellerman) helps him catalog his collections. He creeps her out but she also feels sorry for him. Her boyfriend George (Simon Ward) wants to make a big score and when the guy proposes George wants her to marry him. Raven says he is a “shadmock” and can never whistle. He throws a costume party with his relatives. Angela is caught robbing his safe and he whistles turning her into a monstrosity much to the surprise of George when she visits him. 

BA Robertson performs. Then, vampire/film producer Limton Busotsky (Anthony Steel) shows a scene from his upcoming movie. This is the second story, a young, bullied boy wonders about the night work his father (Richard Johnson) does. His mother (Britt Ekland) says he was a nobleman in Europe. A priest (Donald Pleasence) urges the boy to discover why dad sleeps all day. The boy discovers dad is a vampire and the priest is a vampire hunter. The vampire turns the tables on his hunters in the comical finale. 

Then the band Night performs “Stripper”. The 3rd story is about a “Humgoo”. A grouchy American director (Stuart Whitman) goes to scout a shooting sight in a remote village. An old man (Patrick Magee) tells him the village is run by The Elders. The decrepit townspeople force him to stay. He meets a young girl Luna (Lesley Dunlop) who informs him that the whole village is made up of ghouls. From a diary he learns how some evil ghouls took over the village. The only place they won't go is a church, so he hides out there with Luna, who is half human. They escape but Luna is killed. He's picked up by some ghoul policemen and taken back for “the great eating”. In the end, Aramis makes a great case for allowing a “hume” in the club. Everyone dances to The Pretty Things doing the title song. 

This was the last film produced by Milton Subotsky, who in the 1970's, along with his partner Max J. Rosenberg produced many horror films under the Amicus banner. This was an independent production, however. 

The stories are based on ones written by real horror & ghost story writer R. Chetwynd Hayes who didn't like the movie or Carradine's portrayal of him (he thought the actor too old). The filmmakers had wanted Sir Christopher Lee but he turned it down. It's also the last film directed by the great Roy Ward Baker. Most folks seem to run this movie down and admittedly it's no classic, it's just a fun combo of horror, comedy and music.

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Amicus Anthology

 

 (imdb)

ASYLUM-1972-A young Dr. Martin (Robert Powell) has a job interview in an insane asylum where the head doctor Rutherford has gone insane and is now a patient. Or so says his replacement (Patrick Magee). He says if Martin can identify the loony doc from the other patients, he gets a position.

The first story, “Frozen Fear” is related by Bonnie (Barbara Parkins) and how her lover Walter (Richard Todd) murdered his wife with an ax, chopped up her body and put it in a freezer. The pieces come back to life and kill hubby. Bonnie has to fight the pieces too and winds up insane and disfigured.

Then comes the tale “The Weird Tailor”. Bruno (Barry Morse), a tailor who can't pay his rent, is visited by a Mr. Smith (Peter Cushing) who wants the tailor to make a special suit for his son. He needs the suit to bring his son back to life. After he accidentally kills Smith, Bruno wants to burn the suit. His wife (Ann Firbank) wants to call the police. Fortunately, she puts the suit on Otto the dummy. An episode of TV's "Thriller" is based on the same story.

In the third story “Lucy Comes to Stay”, a woman named Barbara (Charlotte Rampling) comes to live with her stuffy brother George (James Villiers) after a mental breakdown. She has an annoyingly cheerful nurse called Higgins (Megs Jenkins). After Barbara takes some pills, her mysterious friend Lucy (Britt Eklund) shows up and convinces her that George is trying to kill her. But Lucy is just an illusion.

Last up is “Manikins of Horror”. Dr. Byron (Herbert Lom) makes little dolls that he says he can bring to life through thought control, which he does in the finale but there's a fatal twist ending for poor Dr. Martin. 

This is a cool horror anthology from Amicus with all the stories written by Robert Bloch who had performed a similar duty the year before on THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD. Director Roy Ward Baker's previous horror movie had been DR. JEYKLL AND SISTER HYDE (1971).

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More Corman! More Price! More Poe!

THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH-1964-In the village of Kitanya, a red cloaked figure gives an old woman a red carnation and says she should tell her town “your day of deliverance is at hand”. Evil Prince Prospero (Vincent Price) treats the people who harvest his fields like animals. When he is insulted by two men he condemns them to death. A innocent girl Francesca (Jane Asher) begs the prince to spare their lives but he makes her choose which should live or die. One is her father Ludovico (Nigel Greene) and the other her fiance Gino (David Weston). That's forgotten when it's discovered the old woman is carrying the plague. The prince takes the trio to his castle and orders the village burnt. He takes a shine to Francesca despite the protests of Juliana (Hazel Court), one of his guests who brands herself for Satan and has weird (drug induced?) dream-visions. After she thinks he's betrothed to Satan she's clawed to death by a bird. “I beg you do not mourn for Juliana. We should celebrate. She has just married a friend of mine”. 

Prospero invites princes from all over the region to join him at his castle for a decadent “protection from the plague” party. He's a nasty guy who insults his guests and makes them imitate animals and worship Satan. He especially gets the goat of Alfredo (Patrick Magee), a slimy aristocrat who slaps a little ballerina girl (but maybe she is suppose to be a dwarf as she has a dubbed in “adult” voice) during her dance. This leads to a sub-plot based on another Poe story “Hop-Frog” where her dwarf partner (Skip Martin) convinces Alfredo to dress like an ape then burns him alive. 

After Ludovico is killed, Pospero allows Gino to leave but he goes back and tries to rescue his beloved. The same red cloaked figure who spoke to the old woman tells Gino he will bring Francesca to him later. While the guests entertain themselves Prospero, all dressed in black and looking rather Dr. Phibes-ish, finally thinks he meets his master the Devil but in fact it's Death who's come to claim him. 

Director Roger Corman has said although he holds MASQUE has one of his favorite films he wasn't that pleased with the final scene where Pospero's plague infected party goers crowd in on him and thought it could have been better since he felt it was rushed (he did it in one day). His use of colors is awesome and the photography by Nicolas Roeg (in his only work with Corman) is a highlight. The screenplay was written by Charles Beaumont and R. Wright Campbell. This AIP co-production with the English Anglo-Amalgamated was filmed in England in 5 weeks (long for a Corman production!).

Although she had an un-billed cameo in 1981's THE FINAL CONFLICT, MASQUE  was the last film role for Hazel Court (also featured in THE PREMATURE BURIAL and THE RAVEN by Corman) who settled permanently in the US and only made TV appearances. She died in 2008. 

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Late Corman, Early Coppola

DEMENTIA 13-1963-This begins with a husband and wife out in a row boat at night discussing his mother's inheritance. He has a heart attack and dies. She fears that she will be cut out of MIL's will if his death is discovered so she throws his weighted body into the water. After some brief credits, the woman Louise (Luana Anders) packs hubby's suitcase and forges his signature on a note to his mom (Eithne Dunne). Louise is living in an old Irish castle with her two brothers in law. William Campbell is the older brother Richard, an artist who works in metal and is engaged to Kane (Mary Mitchel). Billy (Bart Patton) is the younger bro, shy and weak. They are all haunted by the memory of Kathleen, a sister who drowned when she was a little girl. The woman schemes to make MIL change her will by making the old woman think Kathleen has come back. Her plan doesn't work as she is killed by a mysterious ax murderer who also decapitates an old poacher. Patrick Magee is the weird family doctor who figures it out. 

Producer Roger Corman wanted a low budget PSYCHO rip-off made with money left over form his THE YOUNG RACERS (which had featured Campbell, Anders and Magee). He hired Francis Ford Coppola (only his third film) to write and directed it in Ireland. It's dark and bizarre and the acting is very good. Corman and Coppola clashed over the final cut's running time and Corman added a  "gimmick" prologue (directed by either Jack Hill or Monte Hellman) to pad it out.  So Corman wanted to rip-off Hitchcock and William Castle??

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They're Not That Young

THE YOUNG RACERS-1963-This serious racing drama is really unlike any other film director Roger Corman has made.

William Campbell stars as Joe Machin, an arrogant womanizing race car driver. He steals the fiancée’ of a writer and former driver named Stephen (Mark Damon, who for some reason had his dialogue re-dubbed by Bill Shatner). To get revenge Stephen decides to write a tell all book about Machin exposing him as a dumb asshole. Much soul searching and character studies ensue. Luana Anders is Stephen’s new love interest and W. Wright Campbell (who also scripted) is Machin's brother. Patrick Magee shows up midway as a critic who stirs things up. Un-credited assistant Francis Ford Copolla made DEMENTIA 13 at the same time which also featured Damon, Anders and Magee.

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