Goodbye 2015!

2015 was a difficult year for Donna and me, but I'm glad to say we survived it. I shouldn't accentuate the negative because the year was not without its highlights, its pleasures or its blessings. Top of the list would be that afternoon at the HorrorHound convention last March when I got more hugs from the Soska Sisters than I could count!

This was also a big year for personal accomplishments - I wrote the longest chapter for Neil Snowdon's WE ARE THE MARTIANS: THE LEGACY OF NIGEL KNEALE (a book still forthcoming), about the screenwriter's neglected literary career, I also wrote some entries for Marcelline Block's French film encyclopedia (still in the works); I was invited to join the Board of Directors behind Huston Huddleston's Hollywood Horror Museum project; and the record shows that I provided nine (9!) different audio commentaries for different Blu-ray releases this year, with another four (4!) still awaiting release - five, if you acknowledge that VALENTINO is coming out from two different companies on either side of the Atlantic. So this was an extremely busy year for me, though my time was ultimately more addressed to side projects than than to what is mine - which is, frankly, something I need to change. Mind you, I still managed to do all that we were able to do with VIDEO WATCHDOG, and the issues we produced this year - if anything - continued to exceed our usual high standards. I wrote nearly 60 new entries for this blog.

On a more personal note, Donna and I had to bid a sad farewell to our beloved Blabber (aka Mr Blab), who succumbed to renal failure at the ripe old age of 18 - and then, in one of those blessings I mentioned, Janie came to live with us, sitting on my chest and tummy every day to be adored and always taking her leave with such sudden, unpredictable force that I now carry a red, haphazard tic-tac-toe grid on my abdomen.

Next year is already looking better and giving rise to certain hopes, but I can't talk about that yet. My resolution for 2016 is to try to better address my own projects, my own needs, my own life, and my own health. Happy New Year to all of you who have followed this blog over the past 10 years! Celebrate responsibly this evening, and stay tuned.

First Look: VIDEO WATCHDOG 181 - in stores January 15!

... and shipping to subscribers NOW.

Read more about it here.

Wishing You A Happy Video Christmas

Last night, rather than watch another Christmas movie we've seen at least a dozen times, Donna and I turned to Hulu and watched a few Christmas episodes of some classic television series that we hadn't seen. It turned out to be a good idea. 

The two highlights were both titled "The Christmas Story." The first was a first season episode of FATHER KNOWS BEST and found the Anderson family indulging Father's whim by driving out to the country to chop down their own Christmas tree, the old-fashioned way. They run into bad weather and must prevail on the hospitality of a kindly old bearded fellow named Nick, who's living in the log cabin they find there. Nick is played by Wallace Ford (FREAKS, Babe Hanson of the MUMMY movies!), who gives a wonderful performance as the stranger who reminds the Andersons of what Christmas is really all about. We also watched another FKB holiday episode called "The Angel's Sweater," which I found less winning but it did have little Kitten (Lauren Chapin, so sweet in the first season) showing off some newly-acquired phrases like "Oh, turn blue!"

Then there was a Christmas episode of LASSIE, in which the heroic collie is hit by a truck while pushing a three-year-old out of the path of certain death. The Martin family and Doc Weaver dote over Lassie, who needs a very risky brain operation to resume her normal functions, which is eventually performed by a specialist on the Martins' own kitchen table as a group of children stand outside with their pets, with an interested newspaper reporter, and the mother whose child ran out in the street, to accompany the surgery with carols. Considering how many more episodes there were, would it really be a spoiler if I told you that Lassie not only survives, but is able to walk outside with her head in a sling to bark them all her thanks for coming out? The episode was directed by Don Taylor, of all people - the former star of NAKED CITY (the movie), the future husband of Hazel Court, and the future director of ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES, DAMIEN: OMEN II and THE ISLAND OF DR MOREAU.

As we head once again into the year-end holidays, Donna and I both want to thank everyone for their continued support of our ventures here at VIDEO WATCHDOG. A new issue will be wending its way to you very soon, so stay tuned to this page for your traditional "First Look."

VW's Favorite Blu-ray Discs of 2015 - Editor's Choice

Simon MacCorkindale and John Mills in QUATERMASS.

The following should not be mistaken for a list of my favorite films of 2015. Frankly, I didn't see enough new movies this past year to compile a proper list - I liked a few well enough, but the best films I saw this year were all vintage titles; the best film I saw in 2015 for the first time was probably Monte Hellman's THE SHOOTING (1966), which - with its companion feature RIDE IN THE WHIRLWIND - was the subject of an excellent Criterion package late last year.

Therein lies the trouble with assembling these annual lists. The new list is always undone by one's attempts to catch up with what was missed last year, or last year's late arrivals, not to mention the intensified need to keep up with television, where more and more quality viewing tends to surface. (I racked up close to 40 individual seasons of different television series this past year.) My viewing this year was also somewhat stalled by the amount of audio commentary work I took on, which required me to watch close to a dozen different films several, several times.

So, this may not be a definitive list, but for now, it's mine. If there's something blatantly missing from my list, it's possible that I simply haven't seen it.

This year, because there were so many, and because the issues of film restoration and preservation should always be at the heart of what VIDEO WATCHDOG endorses, I am going to restrict my Top 10 (my list worked out to exactly 10) to those releases which embody the most important digital restorations of the year. This list is then followed by some other notable releases of this past year. In the spirit of full disclosure, I have orange bolded those titles which feature audio commentaries of mine. I'll comment on these as inspiration strikes.

Mary Arden in BLOOD AND BLACK LACE.

FAVORITE RESTORATIONS (in order of preference)

QUATERMASS, Network (UK)
     Hands down, this dual presentation of Nigel Kneale's final Quatermass teleplay in its four-hour miniseries and two-hour feature (THE QUATERMASS CONCLUSION) versions are the most radically improved digital restorations of the year - and the competition was intense.

BLOOD AND BLACK LACE, Arrow Films and Video (UK)
     This breathtaking 2K restoration is the most beautiful testament to the genius of Mario Bava to date.

VINCENT PRICE IN SIX GOTHIC TALES, Arrow Films and Video (UK)
     The closest thing we're likely to see to a proper box set of Roger Corman's Poe Cycle, missing only THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH, but pairing state-of-the-art restorations of the remaining half-dozen with the best-available scholarly commentary in spoken and written form.

KWAIDAN, Criterion
     Masaki Kobayashi's masterful ghost story anthology has always looked sumptuous on home video, but this latest release adds glassiness, increased depth and more pregnant color to intoxicating effect. 

THE STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MISS OSBOURNE, Arrow Films and Video
     Filmed with a deliberately hazy look, giving it the appearance of a story dredged up from the subconscious, Walerian Borowczyk's wicked masterpiece must have been a devil of a job to restore digitally. The job has been done to perfection and - for the first time - is completely uncut.

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH, Twilight Time
     If you've bought this title before - even if you've bought this title on Blu-ray before - you need to buy it again. 4K restoration, and it shows. This beloved Jules Verne adventure has never looked or sounded better, not even on the big screen.

MASTERWORKS OF AMERICAN AVANT-GARDE EXPERIMENTAL FILM 1920-1970, Flicker Alley
     This collection cherry-picks for sterling preservation a number of the most essential experimental short films of the 20th century. Not all the contents are of equal value or improvement, but some titles here are revelatory and the validity of the project is unassailable. 

HOUSE OF BAMBOO, Twilight Time
     Another 4K 20th Century Fox restoration, and presented for the first time on home video in its original 2.55:1 screen ratio. A must see for the sheer shock value of its storytelling, its use of compositions in-depth, and its preservation of a Japan that no longer exists. 

IN COLD BLOOD, Criterion
     This is another 4K restoration but what it really sells is cinematographer Conrad Hall's penetrating use of black. And the 5.1 remix of Quincy Jones' abrasive, slippery, finger-popping jazz score is a powerhouse.

LEGACY OF SATAN and BLOOD, Code Red
     A Bryanston Pictures double feature from 1974 restored to a luster it couldn't have had on Deuce and drive-in screens back in 1974. with Andy Milligan's BLOOD the beneficiary of almost 10 minutes of never-before-seen footage.

Yul Brynner in KINGS OF THE SUN.

OTHER FAVORITES (in alphabetical order)

BLACK CATS (Fulci's THE BLACK CAT and Martino's YOUR VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY), Arrow Films and Video

BLACK SABBATH, Kino Lorber
     The AIP version of Mario Bava's anthology horror classic, available in the States for the first time since its laserdisc bow and appreciably better-looking than the greenish Arrow Video release. For the record, this disc also includes a brand-new audio commentary by me, different to the one I recorded for the Italian version a decade ago.

EATEN ALIVE, Arrow Films and Video
     One of my favorite Tobe Hooper films, filmed with so much atmospheric fog, haze and harsh color lighting that it must have been a particular challenge for the restoration team. Like seeing the film for the first time in some ways, and buttressed with the usual wealth of extras for which Arrow is reknowned.

EMPEROR OF THE NORTH, Twilight Time

EUGENIE... THE STORY OF HER JOURNEY INTO PERVERSION, Blue Underground

EYES WITHOUT A FACE, BFI

JE T'AIME, JE T'AIME, Kino Lorber
     For many years almost impossible to see, Alain Resnais' French time travel opus - more LA JETÉE than SOMEWHERE IN TIME - is now the American science fiction disc of the year, in my opinion. Also - as it is presented here, with bonus content related to screenwriter Jacques Sternberg - an important testament to an important national chapter in science fiction cinema generally overlooked in English language histories.

KINGS OF THE SUN, Kino Lorber
     This was a new discovery for me, but more than anything else I saw this year for the first time, it made me feel like I was enthralled in a third row seat at a kiddie matinee. With Leo Gordon as a Mayan warrior!

LOST SOUL: THE DOOMED JOURNEY OF RICHARD STANLEY'S ISLAND OF DR MOREAU, Severin Films

MARQUIS DE SADE'S JUSTINE, Blue Underground

NIGHTMARE CASTLE, Severin Films
     With the extended Italian export cut of the main feature (THE NIGHT OF THE DOOMED) and bonus Barbara Steele features CASTLE OF BLOOD and TERROR CREATURES FROM THE GRAVE, this is a generous package and a rich immersion in the Golden Age of Italian Fantasy. 

QUEEN OF BLOOD, Kino Lorber

STORMY WEATHER, Twilight Time

     A beautifully glossy disc, and the isolated music tracks make this one particularly appetizing for us jazz men.

TWICE-TOLD TALES, Kino Lorber

TWO FOR THE SEESAW, Kino Lorber

      Ted McCord's black-and-white widescreen photography on this one blew me away. An unexpected Blu-ray of tremendous visual force, particularly recommended for those who mourn the old New York.

VIDEODROME, Arrow Films and Video
     A movie that continues to reveal itself, and ourselves, to us as our society continues to mutate - and this deluxe set, with its bonus disc of short films, is the ultimate Cronenberg feast.

VOODOO MAN, Olive Films
     Frankly, this is here as a sentimental favorite only. The film is intact but the restoration has taken all the whites out of the picture, dulling its veneer. This is the only time I'll say this on this list: save a few bucks and go with the DVD. 

WOMAN OF STRAW, Kino Lorber
     This Basil Dearden thriller came as a real surprise to me. From its advertising, I had always assumed this to be a torrid romance picture, but it's a Hitchcockian thriller on par with, or better than, the work that Hitch himself was turning out during this troubled mid-1960s period. With Gina Lollobrigida, Ralph Richardson and Sean Connery, caught between his second and third Bond pictures and looking supernaturally handsome.
     
"X" - THE MAN WITH X-RAY EYES, Kino Lorber

Keep watching this entry in the days ahead, as I'm going to try my best to add a few more worthy titles before Christmas hits.

RIP Carolyne Barry aka Carole Shelyne (1943 - 2015)

It was a great gimmick.

It had certainly worked for Harold Lloyd, and indeed for Clark Kent - just a pair of round horn-rimmed glasses.

In the early 1960s, a 21 year-old Brooklyn-born dancer named Carole Stuppler was hired to become one of the dancers on ABC-TV's SHINDIG. She put on a pair of round horn-rimmed glasses, changed her name to Carole Shelyne (pronounced "she-lin"), and danced her little heart out. I suppose the glasses (which were lens-less, like the ones Phil Silvers wore - so they wouldn't reflect studio lights) could have been a further change of identity to protect her privacy, like her name change, but they also helped her to stand out. The Shindig dancers - which included Teri Garr, Anita Mann, Pam Freeman, Brenda Benet and the curiously named Maria Ghava - were all accomplished go-go spirits, but regardless of the choreography, the eye was somehow always drawn to those glasses. At least mine was. I was eight when SHINDIG premiered in 1964, and suddenly going on 12, thanks to this vision of perky kookiness calling herself Carole Shelyne.

She was an early crush of mine, and I just learned the other day that she died last June, at the age of 71. 

The IMDb credits Carolyne Barry - the name she eventually settled on - with appearing on 45 episodes of SHINDIG between 1964 and 1965. On one of those episodes, she stepped into the spotlight to perform a song from a novelty single she had just recorded for Liberty Records, "The Girl With the Horn-Rimmed Glasses." It had even better B-side called "Boys Do Make Passes At Girls Who Wear Glasses," written by the songwriting team of Guy Hemric and Jerry Styner, whose astonishing list of credits include numerous songs for AIP movies, including all the BEACH PARTY pictures, both DR GOLDFOOT pictures, WILD IN THE STREETS and GODZILLA VS THE SMOG MONSTER ("Save The Earth")!

Hemric-Styner also wrote a song called "These Are the Good Times," which Frankie Avalon performed on THE PATTY DUKE SHOW - where Carole followed a MR NOVAK dramatic debut ("Beat the Ploughshare, Edge the Sword") with a special guest performance in an episode called "Patty's Private Pygmalion." Here, sporting the familiar round specs, she played a high school wallflower named Marcia, whom the outgoing Patty Lane grooms to become so popular that she ends up losing her own date to her. The performance that Carole gave here was surprisingly vulnerable and poignant, while also showing unsuspected range in the opposite direction, and the script by Arnold Horwitt (whom I'm surprised to see also wrote one of my favorite GREEN ACRES episodes, "The Case of the Hooterville Refund Fraud") ventured some surprisingly candid comments about teenage jealousy. When people look back on THE PATTY DUKE SHOW, this is one of the episodes they typically remember.

But it was Carole's performance as Marvin (yes, Marvin) in the 1966 spy-beach spoof OUT OF SIGHT that really got to me. If the BEACH PARTY movies were like MAD magazine, OUT OF SIGHT is like those oddball DC Comics comedy titles like ANGEL AND THE APE or THE INFERIOR FIVE, and it has a consistently great score produced by Nick Venet and anonymously played by the famous Wrecking Crew, with guest musical appearances by Gary Lewis and the Playboys, The Turtles, The Astronauts, Dobie Gray and The Knickerbockers. The songs are fantastic. Directed by Lennie Weinrib (one of the constables who investigate Peter Lorre's cellar in TALES OF TERROR, and later the voice of H.R. Pufnstuf himself) and scripted by future LAUGH-IN cast member Larry Hovis, it's a vehicle for a young comic actor named Jonathan Daly, a charming composite of Robert Vaughn, Jerry Lewis and Nancy Kulp. Daly plays Homer, the hapless, envious butler of top secret agent John Stamp, who poses as his absent boss to disrupt the plan of Russian spy Big D (John Lawrence) to destroy all teenagers - because all their "yeah yeah yeah" nonsense annoys him. Marvin is a bespectacled wallflower of a girl who gloms onto Homer as her date for the festival Big D is sponsoring to lure the biggest of all British long-haired bands to their destruction. "He's just my type - a BOY!" she gushes. As the movie continues, we realize that it doesn't really have the Beatles in store; the biggest British long-haired band is Freddie and the Dreamers! (Unless you're watching the band in performance from behind them - then they become stock footage of the Beatles!) Anyway, I loved it when I first saw it in December 1966 and I still do.

On the night I learned of Carole's passing, I pulled out my trusty DVD-R copy of OUT OF SIGHT - recorded from AMC during that wonderful period when they were gearing up for that too-good-to-be-true "American Pop" spin-off channel that never happened - and watched it as my candlelight vigil. She's in the film somewhat less than I remembered, but in the course of its madcap 87 minutes, she has two lines that I imagine imprinted themselves on me deeply. At the end of the film, Marvin reveals that she has seen through Homer's disguise from the very beginning, and when he asks how she possibly did this, she deadpans, "I read a lot." Well. Four words straight to my heart. Secondly, as she explains her liking for Homer twice in the movie, "I go for the weird ones." And ever since seeing OUT OF SIGHT, I did, do, and probably always will.

After OUT OF SIGHT, which lived up to its name at the box office, being one of those summer pictures that end up playing at drive-ins during "free in-car heater" season, Carole seems to have retired her horn-rimmed glasses image but continued to act on series like STAR TREK ("Arena") and THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. ("The Cap and Gown Affair"), and there was also a recurring role as Franny on the ABC series HERE COME THE BRIDES, starring her SHINDIG co-worker Bobby Sherman. In 1976, she actually scripted a low-budget horror movie, DARK AUGUST, starring herself, Kim Hunter, and the top-lined J.J. Barry - a veteran of LAUGH-IN's second season. I assume that she married her star around this time, as her subsequent credits - including a part on the 1988 STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION episode "Home Soil" - settle on the name Carolyne Barry.

In the early 1980s, Carolyne parlayed her experience (which included appearances in some 400 television commercials) into the founding of the Professional Artist Group, the Carolyne Barry Workshops, and finally Carolyne Barry Creative - all acting workshops in which she trained students not only how to act, but how to successfully audition and land roles. On YouTube there are a number of videos that eavesdrop on her seminars, and they show her to be an effective and personable instructor. In this role, she reminds me a great deal of my late friend Mary Dawne Arden, a former actress and model who went on to found Arden Associates, who had a similar gift for public speaking and directing people to their secret potential.

In my early years on Facebook, I found a page for Carolyne and took the opportunity - as I've often done there with people I admire - to send her a note of appreciation. I expressed my particular liking for OUT OF SIGHT (which may have led her to think I was some kind of crank) and shared that her "horn-rimmed glasses girl" character had been responsible for a character trait in myself that had always served me in good stead - to judge women not by their looks, but by their personal character. Indeed, I had married a blonde who wore glasses, and she was one of "the weird ones." Unfortunately, the reply I received seemed confused and wary; it gave me the feeling that she didn't often receive fan letters and perhaps didn't quite know how to deal with that kind of well-meaning intrusion. Before I could reply, a postscript followed from her, apologizing and explaining that she had a sister who was dying of cancer, which was very much on her mind - and, as quickly as that confession came out, thanking me for writing. I wrote back, to thank her for following up, to send my regrets and my wishes for only the very best for her and her sister.

So we didn't become friends, but we didn't have to. Her life had touched mine, so I wanted to touch hers back. I know now, from reading numerous online testimonials from her colleagues and students, what a positive force she was in so many lives, in both her incarnations. Godspeed to her horn-rimmed spirit.        

           

Some Holiday Gift Book Suggestions

With the holidays rapidly approaching, I thought it might be a good time to recommend some of the best film-related books to have surfaced in the past year, because - never mind the propaganda we hear about the death of bookstores and the imminent demise of printed matter - no gift so eloquently embodies the holidays as a beautiful book. And this year there have been quite a few that you might consider giving... or receiving.

FAB Press vault to the top of my list with the year's most notable coffee table book and impressive objet d'art: Nicolas Winding Refn's THE ACT OF SEEING, with text by Alan Jones. Lurking behind an outward presentation that doesn't quite tell you what's inside, this is actually a book that has been sorely needed: a retrospective of the art of exploitation poster design, focusing primarily on rarely seen sexploitation titles of the 1960s. Admittedly there have been other books that collected such posters, but there has never been another quite like this one, and not simply due to the extent of its rich indulgence. If you have ever, like me, responded to that mercurial, unnameable quality found in the posters for films like THE ORGY AT LIL'S PLACE, THE DEFILERS and THE UNDERTAKER AND HIS PALS - a quality that somehow encompasses unrepentant sleaze and a haunting quality otherwise found only in the highest forms of art - this is the book for you, because Refn recognizes it too and that is what this book is about, organizing these materials with a genuine curator's eye and aesthetic. Packaged inside a handsome slipcase and printed on heavy glossy stock that makes every color pop, this is a book that offers as much substance as surface, and its surface is considerable. THE ACT OF SEEING is a veritable aphrodisiac of sordid salesmanship, and Jones' witty and knowledgeable annotations put the exciting parade of images into meaningful context.

Over the last ten years, British journalist Paul Sutton has devoted much of his time to interviewing the surviving cast and crew members associated with the late, great British film director Ken Russell. Published as both a large softcover and limited hardcover edition with bonus color pages, TALKING ABOUT KEN RUSSELL (Buffalo Books) is the end result of that dedicated effort - more than 100 original interviews, including Russell himself on most titles, with additional comments drawn from other sources. What makes this book so special, almost unique of its kind, is that it presents generally without editorial adornment the history of a filmmaker's career from the points of view offered up by his crew, the people overlooked by most historians, which presents us with new and unusual perspectives of how films like WOMEN IN LOVE, THE MUSIC LOVERS and THE DEVILS were made. Sutton, who worked with Russell on his last video efforts, shows an inexhaustible passion for the subject while making no attempt to white-wash his findings. This balanced frankness enables the book to present Russell in a more human dimension, through the eyes of the co-workers who more than once followed him into battle through fires at heart's center; so we come away with a more three-dimensional view of this man whose temper, tendency to provocation, abuses of power, and professional recklessness are more easily aligned with what we know of his intelligence and creative authority. By the end of this book, we better understand what attracted Russell to certain subjects and certain actors, why his best work ended with VALENTINO and why the overall body of his work can be divided into specific periods, and how the most successful British film director of his generation became "unbankable." You might think this sounds like a "rise and fall" story, but if anything, this is a testament to one of the 20th century's great visionary artists and his indomitable spirit. Available from Amazon or directly from the author.

The winner of last year's Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award for Monster Kid of the Year was Frank J. Dello Stritto, who won the award primarily for writing I SAW WHAT I SAW WHEN I SAW IT - which Cult Movies Press has published as a handsome signed and numbered hardcover limited to only 1,000 copies. This book (which takes its title from a line in ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN) is a kind of autobiography told primarily through the author's initial and recurrent encounters with horror and other popular entertainment via neighborhood theater matinees, drive-ins and television. As such, it is particularly recommended to readers who share with Dello Stritto the uncanny experience of having grown up in the 1950s and 1960s and will glean a special pleasure from having their feelings about childhood companions like Abbott & Costello, the Frankenstein Monster, Rod Serling, Bela Lugosi, and Steve Reeves revived in eloquent, loving language. This may well be the definitive account of the "Monster Kid" experience published to date, and it follows its own central Monster Kid into adulthood and the way these characters abide through life with us. One reads this book with the uncanny impression that Dello Stritto has been taking careful notes toward this ultimate expression his entire life, and I'm sure he has.

The first volume of Stephen Thrower's MURDEROUS PASSIONS: THE DELIRIOUS CINEMA OF JESUS FRANCO is one of the most absorbing and detailed film books of this past year, not to mention a beautiful artifact in both its standard and deluxe editions from Strange Attractor Press. Co-written with Julian Grainger, who contributes sidebar chapters elucidating the business side of Franco's collaborations with Orson Welles, Marius and Daniel Lesoeur of Eurociné, and Harry Alan Towers, this volume follows a lengthy introductory overview with individual chapters addressed to (one might say "appropriately") 69 feature films made between 1959 and 1974. While I must admit to having some problems with the book - it was written out of sequence, resulting in repetitions of some remarks, and feels impatient toward much of the work, as if the author was inspired by only a handful of the films and had to plough through the majority under duress - it is well-written and infectious about what it likes. Most importantly, it organizes Franco's sprawling and unwieldy oeuvre into a convincing chronological sequence that sometimes finds him filming as many as five pictures simultaneously; this is no small feat. I have a more detailed review forthcoming in VIDEO WATCHDOG 180, but if you are any stripe of a Franco fan, you must have it. Very much looking forward to the second volume, which will cover a wealth of films in greater detail than most have ever before received in English.

I've not yet seen it, but another imposing Franco book was just published - in France, in French. That book is JESS FRANCO OU LES PROSPERITÉS DU BIS by Alain Petit. Petit was the first journalist to cover Franco's work in depth, for both the French fan press and in professional magazines like VAMPIRELLA (the French edition, which unlike the US magazine had a film section), and he later appeared in some of his films, under his own name (TENDER FLESH) and as "Charlie Christian" (THE MIDNIGHT PARTY, JULIETTE). In the 1990s, he published a limited run fanzine devoted to chronicling Franco's entire career entitled THE MANACOA FILES - and this immense book updates and adds to their complete contents, which encompass complete credits and discussion of each film, interviews with Franco and a large number of his collaborators and more. Though the book is in French, it is illustrated with numerous never-before-seen photos and is accompanied with a special code that will allow the reader access to a complete English translation of the text. Published by Artus Films, the book includes a DVD of an otherwise unavailable Franco film - Operation Levres Rouges (1960), the rare French version of his second feature, Labios rojos, the first of several Franco films about the two female private detectives who run the agency known as Red Lips. 

If you're looking for something a little more mainstream, a little more affordable, and no less an important achievement, go directly to the newly updated edition of Jonathan Rigby's ENGLISH GOTHIC, now subtitled CLASSIC HORROR CINEMA 1897-2015. When Rigby published the first edition of this now-classic text (then subtitled A CENTURY OF HORROR CINEMA) in the year 2000, his book had the elegiac air of a monument to a bygone age of industry - but happily, almost as if the appearance of the book had catalyzed a long-hoped-for response, the British horror cinema was subsequently resurrected. Consequently, this new edition not only extends the earlier text by some 50 pages but adds on another 75+ pages covering the period of 2000-2015 with discussion of such films as THE DESCENT, THE CHILDREN and THE WOMAN IN BLACK, as well as an added chapter surveying the immensely rich history of English gothic television. Published by Signum Books and sporting a somewhat revised layout that remains nevertheless true to the beautiful, imaginative design of the original edition, the revised ENGLISH GOTHIC is not yet available in America so cast your nets abroad.

An absolutely revelatory art book with strong but unusual ties to the horror genre is Ulrich Merkl's DINOMANIA: THE LOST ART OF WINSOR McCAY, THE SECRET ORIGINS OF KING KONG, AND THE URGE TO DESTROY NEW YORK from Fantagraphics. In the last years of his life, which ended in 1934, cartoonist Winsor McCay - the inventor of the animated cartoon - was planning a new comic strip that would follow in the surreal footsteps of his classics DREAMS OF THE RAREBIT FIEND and LITTLE NEMO IN SLUMBERLAND. The strip was to be called DINO and would document the troubles that a Gertie-like dinosaur would get into if freed from its resting place into the modern day. Only six pages of such art exists, a combination of McCay's own finished art, as well as some strips scripted by him that had to be completed here in his style by other hands, but it is terribly impressive; however, what is even more impressive is that these strips are just the stepping-off point for the book's primary task of underscoring McCay's paternity of nearly all the popular iconography that is associated with the invasions of great cities by giant monsters, and particularly the way dinosaurs have been depicted over the last century in modern fantasy and storytelling. (As Merkl helpfully points out, dinosaurs only became known to modern man within the last 170 years!) The book not only covers such creatures in the arts, but in general iconography, most impressively reproducing a two-page April Fool's Day spread from a 1906 CHICAGO TRIBUNE documenting a supposed assault on the city by battling dinosaurs - whose fabric is directly traceable to McCay's "Gertie the Dinosaur" and "The Pet." Subsequent chapters draw distinct parallels between McCay's body of work, THE LOST WORLD and KING KONG by demonstrating their shared iconography, particularly in terms of McCay's fascination with giant monsters, giantism in general, and the destruction of cities like New York. Merkl also explores earlier iconography of apes climbing buildings and abducting fair-haired women with results that are sometimes jaw-dropping. A masterpiece of book design, and a history of dots that very much needed to be connected, DINOMANIA will greatly extend your knowledge and enrich your appreciation of subjects dear to your heart.      

For those of you who may be partial to the 1950s vintage of horror, may I reach back slightly farther than a year ago to recommend THE CREATURE CHRONICLES: EXPLORING THE BLACK LAGOON TRILOGY by Tom Weaver with David Schecter and Steve Kronenberg? (Not to mention the King of Creach Fetishists, David J. Schow, who kicks in a couple of bonus chapters of his own!) McFarland has indulged this project with production value that includes interior color and glossy paper - it literally doesn't feel like the typical McFarland release - and it's easy to see why they went the extra several miles. This is literally everything you wanted to know about Universal's CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON - its origin, its design, its production, its stars, its sequels, its homages, its mind-boggling merch, and its abiding hold on Monster Kid consciousness. This book won last year's Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Film Award for Best Book. With a detailed Introduction by Julie Adams, this book raises a serious appetite for similarly focused, deluxe books on Universal's other classic monsters series. How about a long overdue revised edition of Greg Mank's IT'S ALIVE?

And lastly - because we weren't sent every new film-related book that came out this past year - this year also saw the publication of  MIDI-MINUIT FANTASTIQUE VOLUME 2 by Michel Caen (who sadly passed away while the book was in production) and Nicolas Stanzick - continuing the ambitious, deluxe, hardcover repackaging of the greatest of all European magazines devoted to fantastic cinema. This new volume includes the complete French-language contents of  #7 through the double issue of 10-11, a spread that happily encompasses MMF's legendarily banned (and now difficult-to-find) 8th issue, devoted to eroticism in the fantastic cinema. One of the purposes of this series is to refurbish and preserve the contents of these precious magazines in state-of-the-art quality whenever possible, so one of the most impressive aspects of this particular volume is seeing the racy stills exclusively presented in that eighth issue - from the "continental" versions of films like THE FLESH AND THE FIENDS, JACK THE RIPPER and THE HELLFIRE CLUB - digitally scanned from original photos and presented herein with startling (and sometimes full-page!) clarity. To make an already incredible document still more impressive, extensive new text and photographic content pertaining to the period covered has been added, including Ornella Volta's ground-breaking 1970 interview with Mario Bava; a revealing color pictorial of actress Sylvie Bréal (Robbe-Grillet's THE MAN WHO LIES); an article by Stanzick documenting a Dracula graphic art project by Philippe Druillet and Jean Boullet; a recent essay by former MMF editor Jean-Claude Romer about lost films; and also Stanzick's introductory tribute to Michel Caen. I dearly wish these books were available in English, but it is still extremely easy for a monolinguist like me to get lost in them. I can't point to any other book or books that better capture, pictorially, what I love most about the horror genre. VOLUME 2 also contains a 150 minute DVD consisting of many choice rarities, including Patrice Molinard's 1963 short film Fantasmagorie (40m) starring the great Édith Scob (EYES WITHOUT A FACE, JUDEX)!

   

  

RIP Germán Robles, the Genii of Darkness (1929-2015)

Germán Robles was the very figurehead of Silver Age Mexican horror - and the first actor to portray a vampire with fangs, at least in films widely seen in our part of the world. He made his screen debut as the bloodthirsty Count Lavud in Fernando Mendez' THE VAMPIRE (El Vampiro, 1957 - pictured), a film that remarkably predated Hammer's HORROR OF DRACULA by the better part of an entire year, anticipating some of its moves while also retaining a balance of debt to Tod Browning's DRACULA (1931) with Bela Lugosi. Due in no small part to Robles' authority and stylish performance, the film proved very successful and resulted in a sequel, THE VAMPIRE'S COFFIN (El ataúd del vampiro, 1958). Robles subsequently reteamed with Mendez for a serial that cast him as the undead Nostradamus, which was exported as four individual films. He also appeared in THE BRAINIAC (as a reincarnated victim), CASTLE OF THE MONSTERS, THE LIVING HEAD, NEUTRON VS THE KARATE KILLERS, and numerous teleseries. He was also quite active in the Mexican dubbing industry, having lent his distinctive voice to a number of imported American blockbusters, including Pixar films and pictures in the STAR WARS, TERMINATOR and PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN franchises. In 2007, he was a guest at Monster Bash in Pennsylvania, where he was inducted into the Rondo Awards Hall of Fame for his lifetime achievement. He was 86.

HELLEVATOR: It's Only A Game, It's Only A Game

I finally freed myself from the bonds of cable television some months ago, but thanks to Hulu and my trusty Apple TV, I've been able to keep tabs on the latest adventure of the Soska Sisters, HELLEVATOR. It airs on GSN: the Game Show Network, Wednesday nights at 8:00pm eastern. The third episode of eight airs tonight.

When I first heard about this program, I was excited that someone had recognized Jen and Sylvia Soska as personalities and had understood how well their darkly giddy, sweet-and-salty personalities could lend themselves well to a scary game show project. The premise is fairly irresistible in itself: the Soskas imperiously preside over a control room that operates an elevator that delivers three terrified contestants to three different levels, where they must individually conquer that level's unique challenges for a $5,000 cash prize. Thus, they stand to gain up to $15,000 before the final challenges posed by the final level, called The Labyrinth, where they must find as much additional money as they can retrieve from a series of gooey death traps, which - if they conquer them - brings them up to $20,000 and whatever additional monies they have plucked from the rusty jaws of an ancient embalming room or delousing pit.

Two episodes - "The Mortuary" and "The Asylum" - have aired thus far, and I've found them to be fairly entertaining, but there remains room for improvement. The most entertaining facet, surprisingly, has been the contestants. They are so hilarious, so completely over-the-top in their apparent complete belief in the Soskas' proposed scenarios of deranged coroners and madhouse nurses, that the viewer can't help but wonder if these people are real, off-the-street contestants or actors hired to sell the spooky vignettes. (Either way, it's entertainment, right?) Christian, the self-styled group leader of the second episode, immediately reveals himself as a whimpering ninny who "can't do hospitals" - prompting Jen's deadpan line, "Christian, this whole place is a hospital." His quivering, shivering, nearly pants-peeing performance is particularly funny, and lends itself unexpectedly to a feminist high-five finale.

The beauty of the show is how well it captures the purity of those trusting souls who are completely sucked into scary tales told around a campfire in the dark. At the beginning of each show, as the Soskas trade lines, spelling out the instant myth of some vintage sicko who briefly ruled over their own private world of gruesome anatomical and sickly psychological transgressions, we are treated to the most unlikely, wide-eyed expressions blossoming on supposedly adult (well, young adult) faces... and, speaking as a storyteller myself, it's irresistably charming. It also brings something back to the horror genre that has been lost in recent years - the vicarious pleasure of watching a trio absolute fools attempting to survive a night in a haunted house. In terms of the scares it serves up, HELLEVATOR is closer to the SAW films than, say, THE GHOST AND MR CHICKEN, but it forges a genuine connection between the two that simply did not exist before.

However, I think the producers of the show are selling their hostesses short. While HELLEVATOR shows a very real (or at least seemingly real) connection between the contestants and their chain-rattling challenges - which, on last week's show, included a young lady with her head locked inside an acrylic box that was being slowly filled with live (and very tame) rats as she had to navigate a ceiling grid to the key that would free her - there is absolutely no sense of contact or connection between the contestants and the two baleful ladies controlling their fates. Whether it's true or not, it consistently looks like the Soskas and the contestants were never on-set at the same time. Do the contestants even know who their hosts are? Also, Jen and Sylvia (whose names are never mentioned, whose screen credits are buried in the end titles under the names of the producers) don't seem to be playing themselves, but rather something closer to the svelte, black-dressed daughters of HELLRAISER's Pinhead. As you can see in the above photo, they have been made up in such a way as to look dour and slightly unnatural, accentuating an unconvincing contrast between them, rather than the natural symmetry that makes the Twisted Twins so appealing. While they do occasionally come up with a laugh-out-loud line (like "We don't have all day" in the premiere episode), they seem under directorial duress to speak and react with only the coldest pleasure. Stoic sarcasm is the best we get from them, which is a far cry from the infectious sense of fun which has always been the most compelling thing about them. I can't help feeling that HELLEVATOR would be so much better if they were allowed to be themselves, but there is a sense that the controlling minds behind this show were convinced that Horror is a dish best served grim.

For those of you who use Twitter, the Twins are known to tweet live along with the first broadcast of each episode, which is bound to add something vital to the experience.

I imagine that the first season of eight episodes will continue to adhere to this somewhat imperfect pattern, but even so, HELLEVATOR is worth a look - as a modern-day SPOOKS RUN WILD, if you like - not to mention an idea worth nurturing and developing further.  

Mario Bava and Orson Welles - Collaborators!

The big news of the day comes from Wellesnet: The Orson Welles Web Resource, who thank Massimiliano Studer for the information: Mario Bava and Orson Welles worked together! This frame enlargement is taken from an unedited reel of film shot for Welles' 1958 documentary PORTRAIT OF GINA, a now-difficult-to-see appreciation of actress Gina Lollobrigida, and clearly shows the clapper board identifying Mario Bava as the cameraman. This footage was recently discovered in Pordonone by historian Luca Giuliani.

While it is startling to learn that Bava had worked professionally with Welles (and somehow never mentioned it), it should come as no surprise to find him lighting La Lollo. Mario Bava had been the cameraman on all of her most important films - the one in which she was discovered (ELISIR D'AMORE, 1941), those in which she made her breakthrough performances (PAGLIACCI, MISS ITALIA), and also her most breathtaking color film of the 1950s (Robert Z. Leonard's BEAUTIFUL BUT DANGEROUS) - and could be said to be the principal cultivator of her screen image. The half-hour short, produced as part of a proposed "Orson Welles At Large" series, was likely shot around the same time as Bava's first horror film - Riccardo Freda's I VAMPIRI (1957). 

The film curiously contains no screen credits, but was evidently the work of more than one cinematographer and was likely assembled piecemeal as Welles' side-projects usually were. Lollobrigida - who is visited and interviewed at her home by Welles, and who looks beautiful, indicating that she specifically requested Bava as a cameraman whom she could trust to make her look her best - was reportedly unhappy with the film and filed an injunction to prevent it from being shown in the US. It is known to have been screened only a few times, first at the Venice Film Festival in 1958, and subsequently on French and German television.

The future of this footage is presently unknown, but an augmented revival of the film would certainly be welcome.

RIP Charles Herbert (1948-2015)

Before Billy Mumy came along, Charles Herbert (Saperstein) was the go-to child actor for just about any movie or TV series that might have interested me during the first 10 years of my life. He was prominently featured in THE MONSTER THAT CHALLENGED THE WORLD, THE COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK, MEN INTO SPACE, THE FLY, THE BOY AND THE PIRATES, 13 GHOSTS, SCIENCE FICTION THEATER, ONE STEP BEYOND (two episodes), ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS, THE TWILIGHT ZONE ("I Sing the Body Electric"), THE OUTER LIMITS ("The Inheritors")... he was even cast as Patty's brother Ross in the pilot of THE PATTY DUKE SHOW (later replaced by Paul O'Keefe). Imagine doing all of that before you were 15! His filmography stops in 1968, when he was 20 - and after that, as happens with so many child actors whose futures are not properly cared for by their parents, it's said that he lived a very unhappy life until some friends pulled him out of his tailspin; in his 50s, he made some new friends and began meeting with fans on the movie convention circuit. I was saddened to hear that he died on Halloween night of a heart attack at the age of only 66.

Thank you, Charlie, for helping my generation to feel like a part of all those great stories.

First Look: VIDEO WATCHDOG 180

We're here to fight those post-partum post-Halloween blues with your long-awaited First Look at VIDEO WATCHDOG 180! Here's the front cover... and for those of you who would like a generous preview peek inside, just follow this handy link!

Become a VW Patron

In case you haven't seen it yet, there's a new addition to our Website directory that reads "Become A Patron." We thought this blog might be the best place to go into some greater detail.

We know that our readers rely on our magazine, and we doubt it has escaped anyone's notice that - in the last couple of years - we've only been able to publish a couple of new issues annually, rather than the six promised by our bimonthly schedule. This has not been due to money problems or a shortage of material. The reason for the magazine's recent irregularity is largely due to the fact that we only have one Donna. It's one of her many jobs to produce VIDEO WATCHDOG on a regular schedule, but for the past two years, she has had to focus most of her attention on the creation and completion of the VIDEO WATCHDOG Digital Archive, the object of our successful 2013 Indiegogo campaign.

That process was fraught with untold technological perils, all very time-consuming - but happily, all that is behind us now. The promises of our campaign have now been fully kept: all 179 of our back issues are now digitized, as well as our two Special Editions, THE VIDEO WATCHDOG BOOK, and even MARIO BAVA - ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK.

VW's digital arm is a colossal achievement, one that has attracted a lot of  attention and won the respect of executives from much larger businesses. What we did not expect when we undertook it is that the painstaking creation of the Digital Archive would take the wind out of our primary business - which is VIDEO WATCHDOG, the print magazine.

We have considered different things we might do to keep things moving forward, and have already implemented one or two. For the last 25 years, VIDEO WATCHDOG has operated largely on its own earnings. A couple of years ago, we decided to open our pages to paid advertising. In that time, we have done our best to reinvent ourselves as advertising-friendly, but pursuing advertisers is a full-time job; we've had to take heart in the support we have been able to attract on our own merits. Our most recent digital issue, VW 179, introduced a new advertising idea that we call the "Now Playing Showcase" - an inside front cover forum that would guarantee anyone with a product the undivided attention of our very select target demographic. Like a number of things we do, it seems to have been a little ahead of the curve. We hope that advertisers, artists, musicians and authors alike will discover this feature and the wonders it could work for them. But until then...

It also occurred to us that we might undertake another fund-raising campaign, but frankly, it would be counter-productive to take the time away from the magazine to mount such a thing. We know how much time and energy it takes to run a successful campaign, and the print magazine itself must be our primary concern.

We don't want to project the image of a small business seeking charity. What we are seeking is a reliable source of ongoing support, much like SIGHT AND SOUND has the support of the British Film Institute, or FILM COMMENT has the support of the Film Society at Lincoln Center. We can only envision this support coming from our readers, perhaps from those professionals who found their careers as a result of pursuing dreams that VIDEO WATCHDOG inspired.

And so we are seeking Patrons, serious investors in VIDEO WATCHDOG - a magazine that, over the past quarter century, has changed the way that horror and fantasy films are regarded by the industry. A magazine that innovated the way motion pictures on home video are reviewed by everyone. A magazine that has inspired a generation of readers to become filmmakers, screenwriters and preservationists. A magazine whose publishing successes include what many reviewers have described as the most beautiful film-related book of all time. A company that has received the Saturn Award for Special Achievement, the Independent Publishers Award, the International Horror Guild Award and that presently holds the all-time record number of Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards.

We are proud of these laurels, but it's not in our nature to rest on them. We are not ready to quit - there is still so much we want to achieve! The first thing we want to do is get back onto a regular schedule, to continue blazing the trail that we feel is our special contribution to genre journalism - a consumer magazine of genuine literary quality about the genre films that were ghettoized by audience and industry alike when we started publishing in 1990. Our Digital Archive - so much more than a mere digitizing of past content, with its myriad innovations and fresh models for accommodating advertising - shows that we still have bold and surprising ideas up our sleeves. There are also other books we want to publish, and we have many, many more issues that we want to produce. All this can happen if we can connect with those special people who share our dreams and seek only the reimbursement of seeing us achieve these goals.

Sincerely,
Tim and Donna Lucas
Publishers, VIDEO WATCHDOG

Reconstructing SCREAM-IN, Starring Cincinnati's Cool Ghoul

After reconstructing the listings for 12 TALL TALES, I've turned my attention to identifying all of the films that played on WXIX-TV's SCREAM-IN. The prime time Saturday night slot began running horror films as early as December 1968, but - to judge from local advertising - it didn't officially become SCREAM-IN until January 11.

The titled show was reportedly launched with two hosts: 7+-foot-tall Bill Engesser (who had played the towering werewolf in the 1962 nudie HOUSE ON BARE MOUNTAIN) as "Mr. Whopper" and WXIX staffer Alice Davidson as his Morticia-like foil and companion. It's said that Engesser presented himself with no makeup, but merely bent over like a hunchback and contorted his face as he bantered with his co-star, the two of them addressing each other as "Bubala" and "Poopsie." Their stewardship did not last long - and I personally have no memory of it. Presumably the station realized this was not the way to go, as SCREAM-IN was subsequently revamped (pun intended) in May 1969, when local actor/announcer Dick Von Hoene (1940-2004) took over the reigns in the guise of Cincinnati's own legendary horror host, the Cool Ghoul. The Ghoul (pictured above), who feigned a Lugosi-like voice and a "bla-bla-blaaa" laugh, emerged from an upright casket at the beginning of each show, conducted conversations with an off-camera "friend" (also Von Hoene, doing a more Karloffian voice), and would pantomime to Halloween-themed records at the midpoint of each picture. Willie Mitchell's cover of the rhythm and blues standard "Slippin' and Slidin'" was the show's theme song.

I was only 12 when SCREAM-IN came along, and though it had been only two years since 12 TALL TALES had been cancelled over at WKRC-TV, it felt like eons since there had been any kind of horror movie package being shown on Cincinnati television. Of course, at 12, I was also hitting puberty and with puberty comes that heightened level of mania that made the Beatles possible. It was at that level I connected with SCREAM-IN and its syndicated movie packages from AIP-TV and Columbia. The Ghoul initially did the show live - I know, because a friend and I called the station as soon as his first broadcast ended and he kindly spoke to both of us (in character) for at least 10 minutes. We were his first fans, and we became his first fan club - not that we ever sought other members; there were just a few of us who would get together on Saturday nights to watch the show. Calling the station with post-mortem reports became a weekly ritual for a little while, and Dick (who started speaking to us in his real voice by the third call) seemed to enjoy hearing from us - so much that he actually gave me his home number when the show began videotaping his segments, a decision I'm sure that he later regretted. He invited me to the station one afternoon to meet him and watch him tape a show (I wish I could remember which film he showed that week), and some time later, another fan and I worked up some kind of make-shift award and presented it to him on the set. It was just a homely, framed piece of cardboard with a 12 year old's calligraphy on it, but he recognized our sincerity and had a station photographer come down to commemorate the moment - and then showed the photo on the air a week or two later. He was a very patient, very nice man, very knowledgeable about motion pictures (he introduced me to Stanley Kubrick, actually), and we kept in sporadic touch right up to the end. In the last years of his life, he was a regular customer at the bakery where my mother worked, and one day - as a gift from him - she presented me with that station photograph of me and my friend Jim, presenting the Ghoul with our award, which I had only seen once, briefly, on television about 30 years earlier and never, ever expected to see again.  

But besides the Ghoul himself, SCREAM-IN was like my most important education in horror movies in the years prior to my becoming a writer. It offered me my first serious, knowing exposure to Italian horror and, when WXIX came into possession of the Shock Theater package from Universal in the fall of 1970, it became my first (young) adult access to those films, as well.

WXIX-TV, Channel 19, was Cincinnati's fourth commercial television station and its first independent channel. It began broadcasting at 3:00pm on August 1, 1968. One of their most interesting early programs was a Sunday night film series called FOR ADULTS ONLY, a somewhat sensational title for a serious package of films including the likes of LORD OF THE FLIES, LA DOLCE VITA, ALPHAVILLE and numerous Ingmar Bergman titles. I hold Channel 19's early programming almost entirely to blame when I have to explain why my interest in horror and art films has always seemed to run neck and neck. Judging by the listings given in the CINCINNATI ENQUIRER archives, Channel 19 aired a handful of horror titles in the last month of 1968, at 9:00pm on Saturday night, but it did not become SCREAM-IN or hosted by the Cool Ghoul until January 11, 1969. Once the Ghoul stepped in as host, threeof those four early films were immediately reshown.

Here is the near-complete schedule of SCREAM-IN offerings, as best I have been able to reconstruct them.  

THE ANGRY RED PLANET.

1968
Dec 07 - THE ANGRY RED PLANET (or it may have been REPTILICUS, noted in another newspaper listing)
Dec 14 - THE BEAST OF MOROCCO (THE HAND OF NIGHT)
Dec 21 - CRY OF THE BEWITCHED (probably an incorrect listing, as the film is listed as playing in the same time slot on the following January 4)
Dec 28 - THE TERROR

At the beginning of 1969, SCREAM-IN's time slot was bumped back slightly to 9:30pm.


1969
Jan 04 - CRY OF THE BEWITCHED
Jan 11 - THE ANGRY RED PLANET (first proper SCREAM-IN broadcast)
Jan 18 - THE BEAST OF MOROCCO
Jan 25 - JOURNEY TO THE SEVENTH PLANET
Feb 01 - THE TIME TRAVELERS
Feb 08 - NIGHT STAR, GODDESS OF ELECTRA (WAR OF THE ZOMBIES)
Feb 15 - IN THE YEAR 2889 (this listing was apparently in error, as it was repeated in the following week's listings; this week's broadcast was likely another Larry Buchanan film like ZONTAR THE THING FROM VENUS, also known to be in the AIP-TV package being shown through Aug 30)
Feb 22 - IN THE YEAR 2889
Mar 01 - MASTER OF THE WORLD
Mar 08 - PYRO
Mar 15 - MASTER OF THE WORLD
Mar 22 - GHIDRAH, THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER
Mar 29 - INVASION
Apr 05 - THE WIZARD OF MARS
Apr 12 - THE INVISIBLE CREATURE
Apr 19 - DESTINATION INNER SPACE
Apr 26 - IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA
May 03 - THE SON OF DR JEKYLL
May 10 - TERROR IN THE CRYPT (first Cool Ghoul broadcast)

TERROR IN THE CRYPT.

Beginning May 17, SCREAM-IN finally settled into its standard 9:00pm time slot on Saturday nights.

May 17 - DIE MONSTER DIE
May 24 - DR ORLOFF'S MONSTER
May 31 - BILLY THE KID VS DRACULA
Jun 07 - THE FACE OF TERROR
Jun 14 - THE BLANCHEVILLE MONSTER
Jun 21 - BLACK SABBATH
Jun 28 - THE EYE CREATURES
Jul 05 - CIRCUS OF HORRORS
Jul 12 - ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE
Jul 19 - Pre-empted by the Miss Indiana Beauty Pageant (boo!)
Jul 26 - CURSE OF THE SWAMP CREATURE
Aug 02 - THE TERROR
Aug 09 - FROZEN ALIVE (considered by the Ghoul to be the worst film he ever showed!)
Aug 16 - THE MAD MAGICIAN
Aug 23 - TRACK OF THE VAMPIRE
Aug 30 - CASTLE OF THE LIVING DEAD
Sep 06 - FRANKENSTEIN (the arrival of Universal's "Shock Theater" package - a major event!)
Sep 13 - WEIRD WOMAN
Sep 20 - MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE
Sep 27 - Unlisted
Oct 04 - THE INVISIBLE MAN
Oct 11 - THE FROZEN GHOST / Unlisted (double feature)
Oct 18 - Unlisted
Oct 25 - THE INVISIBLE RAY
Nov 01 - DRACULA
Nov 08 - THE WOLF MAN
Nov 15 - THE MUMMY
Nov 22 - THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS
Nov 29 - THE MAD DOCTOR OF MARKET STREET
Dec 06 - MAN-MADE MONSTER
Dec 13 - THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD
Dec 20 - THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE
Dec 27 - PILLOW OF DEATH

THE MUMMY'S GHOST.

1970
Jan 03 - THE MUMMY'S GHOST
Jan 10 - SON OF DRACULA
Jan 17 - Unlisted 
Jan 24 - DRACULA'S DAUGHTER
Jan 31 - DEAD MAN'S EYES
Feb 07 - Unlisted (shown at 5:30pm - 9:00 slot pre-empted by Basketball game)
Feb 14 - THE BLACK ROOM
Feb 21 - THE MAD GHOUL
Feb 28 - FRANKENSTEIN
Mar 07 - THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN
Mar 14 - THE TOWER OF LONDON
Mar 21 - Unlisted  (10:00 "as Movie" - possibly pre-empted by Basketball finals)
Mar 28 - Unlisted
Apr 04 - Unlisted
Apr 11 - ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN
Apr 18 - Unlisted
Apr 25 - Unlisted
May 02 - WEREWOLF IN A GIRL'S DORMITORY
May 09 - Unlisted
May 16 - Unlisted
May 23 - Unlisted
May 30 - Unlisted
Jun 06 - Unlisted
Jun 13 - Unlisted
Jun 20 - THE MUMMY'S TOMB
Jun 27 - BEFORE I HANG
Jul 04 - Unlisted
Jul 11 - Unlisted
Jul 18 - Unlisted
Jul 25 - BLACK SABBATH ("The Telephone" segment cut)
Aug 01 - THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN

The unlisted titles shown during the preceding period would have included such titles as THE MUMMY'S HAND, THE MUMMY'S CURSE, HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, NIGHT MONSTER, CALLING DR DEATH, NIGHT KEY, THE MYSTERY OF MARIE ROGET, THE CAT CREEPS, and SON OF FRANKENSTEIN from the Universal "Shock Theatre" package; BLACK SUNDAY, BURN WITCH BURN!, CIRCUS OF HORRORS (shown uncut only once), THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE (likewise), THE GHOST OF DRAGSTRIP HOLLOW, STRANGLER OF THE TOWER, PLANETS AGAINST US, THE FLYING SAUCER from the AIP-TV package; THE MAN WHO TURNED TO STONE, THE CURSE OF DRACULA, IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA and 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH from the Columbia package, among other titles known to have aired on SCREAM-IN. I also recall seeing Del Tenney's THE HORROR OF PARTY BEACH and THE CURSE OF THE LIVING CORPSE on the show at some point.

By August 1970, the Cool Ghoul's popularity was such that WXIX expanded Von Hoene's duties to encompass Saturday night prime time from 7:00 - 11:00pm. This was done with the introduction of a 7:00 movie, initially called SHOCK IT TO ME but later changed to CREATURE FEATURE, which also happened to be the name of a Sunday afternoon broadcast that ran from 5:00-7:00pm. The Cool Ghoul did not host SHOCK IT TO ME/CREATURE FEATURE, but Von Hoene did "host" the program as an announcer, using the Karloffian voice he created for the Ghoul's off-screen companion, whom he always addressed as "my friend."

UNEARTHLY STRANGER.

Aug 08 - DEATH ROBOTS / THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN OF THE HIMALAYAS (evidently incorrect, as this SCREAM-IN listing was repeated the following week)
Aug 15 - UNEARTHLY STRANGER / THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN OF THE
HIMALAYAS
Aug 22 - RETURN OF THE FLY / BEHIND THE MASK
Aug 29 - JOURNEY TO THE SEVENTH PLANET / SON OF DR JEKYLL
Sep 05 - THE APE WOMAN (cancelled at the last minute as Von Hoene considered the film too "sleazy" for young audiences, replaced with the non-horror WC Fields feature YOU CAN'T CHEAT AN HONEST MAN!)/ THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1943)
Sep 12 - BEYOND THE TIME BARRIER / MY SON THE VAMPIRE
Sep 19 - THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE (shown uncut for the first and only time!) / HOUSE OF DRACULA
Sep 26 - KONGA / HORROR OF DRACULA
Oct 03 - THE EYE CREATURES (single feature)
Oct 10 - CREATURE WITH THE ATOMIC BRAIN / THE GIANT GILA MONSTER
Oct 17 - DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL / THE TERROR
Oct 24 - INVASION EARTH 2150 AD / PYRO
Oct 31 - GODZILLA VS THE SEA MONSTER / HOUSE OF HORRORS
Nov 07 - THE DEMON PLANET (PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES) / JESSE JAMES MEETS FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER
Nov 14 - ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE / RETURN FROM THE PAST (DR TERROR'S GALLERY OF HORRORS)
Nov 21 - THE TIME TRAVELERS / HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM

REPTILICUS.

Nov 28 - PLANET OF BLOOD (incorrect, relisted the following week) / Unlisted
Dec 05 - PLANET OF BLOOD (QUEEN OF BLOOD) / Unlisted
Dec 12 - Unlisted
Dec 19 - Unlisted
Dec 26 - Unlisted

1971
Jan 02 - Unlisted / INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS
Jan 09 - Unlisted
Jan 16 - FRANKENSTEIN
Jan 23 - IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA / Unlisted
Jan 30 - Unlisted / THE RAVEN (1935)
Feb 06 - REPTILICUS / EARTH VS THE SPIDER
Feb 13 - Unlisted / MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE
Feb 20 - Unlisted / THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS
Feb 27 - Unlisted / THE BLACK CAT (1934)
Mar 06 - Unlisted / THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN
Mar 13 - THE WIZARD OF MARS / THE VIKING WOMEN AND THE SEA SERPENT
Mar 20 - THE ANGRY RED PLANET / TEENAGE CAVEMAN (shown at 10:00 after
basketball)
Mar 27 - GHIDRAH THE THREE HEADED MONSTER / THE SCREAMING SKULL
Apr 03 - THE FLYING SAUCER / TERROR IN THE CRYPT
Apr 10 - WEREWOLF IN A GIRL'S DORMITORY / HORROR OF DRACULA
Apr 17 - THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE (cut) / THE FROZEN GHOST
Apr 24 - DIE MONSTER DIE / THE SON OF DR JEKYLL
May 01 - JOURNEY TO THE SEVENTH PLANET / DRACULA
May 08 - DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE / THE WOLF MAN
May 15 - INVASION EARTH 2150 AD / THE INVISIBLE MAN
May 22 - THE INVISIBLE RAY / SON OF DRACULA
May 29 - THE MAD MAGICIAN / THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN (shown at 10:00)
Jun 05 - TRACK OF THE VAMPIRE / BLACK SUNDAY

HORROR CASTLE.

One of the unlisted films from the preceding period would have been HORROR CASTLE (1963) with Christopher Lee, which received complaints from some viewers at the time of its first broadcast about a scene in which a rat cage was attached to a woman's face, resulting in half of her nose being eaten by the hungry rodent. Thereafter, Von Hoene became more sensitive to the needs of the younger members of his audience and he screened each film personally prior to broadcast and cut any scenes that he felt might be too sleazy or too violent for his following. (THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE, CIRCUS OF HORRORS and THE FLESH EATERS are a few films found guilty on both counts.) In the opening minutes of his June 5 broadcast of Mario Bava's BLACK SUNDAY, he announced that part of the beginning of the movie would be slightly cut, so as not to upset the "little ones," but that the scene would be shown uncut at the end of the broadcast, when the little ones would be asleep, so that those who could take it could see it.

RETURN FROM THE PAST.

Jun 12 - TOWER OF TERROR / CASTLE OF THE LIVING DEAD
Jun 19 - I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF / SCREAM-IN pre-empted by Boxing
Jun 26 - HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER / I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN
Jul 03 - VOODOO WOMAN / THE HAND
Jul 10 - IT CONQUERED THE WORLD / THE HEADLESS GHOST
Jul 17 - THE SHE CREATURE / THE UNDEAD
Jul 24 - ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES / SCREAM-IN pre-empted by Boxing
Jul 31 - STRANGLER OF THE TOWER / BURN WITCH BURN
Aug 07 - A BUCKET OF BLOOD / SCREAM-IN pre-empted
Aug 14 - PLANET OF BLOOD / DR ORLOFF'S MONSTER (likely cut)
Aug 21 - JESSE JAMES MEETS FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER / SCREAM-IN pre-empted by
Boxing
Aug 28 - DEMENTIA 13 / RETURN FROM THE PAST
Sep 04 - EEGAH / THE WEREWOLF
Sep 11 - MY SON THE VAMPIRE (Allan Sherman prologue cut) / THE INVISIBLE BOY
Sep 18 - THE NEW INVISIBLE MAN / THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN
Sep 25 - DR WHO AND THE DALEKS / REPTILICUS
Oct 02 - PYRO / 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH
Oct 09 - MAN WITH A CLOAK / HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM (cut)
Oct 16 - THE PHANTOM PLANET / HORROR OF DRACULA
Oct 23 - THE BEAST OF MOROCCO / DAY THE WORLD ENDED
Oct 30 - THE WIZARD OF MARS / IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA
Nov 06 - BEYOND THE TIME BARRIER / THE DEVIL DOLL (1964, cut)
Nov 13 - DEMENTIA 13 / THE TERROR
Nov 20 - VOYAGE TO THE END OF THE UNIVERSE / BLACK SABBATH (the "Telephone" segment cut as "too adult")
Nov 27 - THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE (cut) / DESTINATION INNER SPACE
Dec 04 - THE ANGRY RED PLANET / THE AMAZING TRANSPARENT MAN
Dec 11 - THE KILLER SHREWS / CRY OF THE BEWITCHED
Dec 18 - KONGA / SCREAM-IN pre-empted by Basketball
Dec 25 - THE GIANT GILA MONSTER / THE 5000 FINGERS OF DR T

The next year began with a showing of BURN, WITCH, BURN! (UK: NIGHT OF THE EAGLE), a British film starring American actress Janet Blair, with whom Von Hoene was evidently very taken. Every time he presented the film - he had shown it at least once before this - he would touchingly alert his viewers to "pay close attention" to the leading lady in the movie "because she is very, very pretty."

BURN WITCH BURN.

1972
Jan 01 - THEATER OF DEATH / BURN WITCH BURN
Jan 08 - BEDLAM / PSYCHOMANIA (cut)
Jan 15 - THE CURSE OF DRACULA / HORROR CASTLE (cut)
Jan 22 - THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS / THE DIABOLICAL DR Z (cut)
Jan 29 - THE MONSTER THAT CHALLENGED THE WORLD / CORRIDORS OF BLOOD
Feb 05 - INVASION EARTH 2150 AD / GHIDRAH THE THREE HEADED MONSTER
Feb 12 - BATMAN / MARK OF THE VAMPIRE
Feb 19 - DESTINATION MOON / I BURY THE LIVING
Feb 26 - MIGHTY JOE YOUNG / MASTER OF THE WORLD
Mar 04 - THE HAUNTED STRANGLER / THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD
Mar 11 - WEREWOLF IN A GIRL'S DORMITORY / THE TIME TRAVELERS
Mar 18 - THE AMAZING TRANSPARENT MAN / INVASION EARTH 2150 AD
Mar 25 - I BURY THE LIVING / HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM (cut)
Apr 01 - IN THE YEAR 2889 / THE EYE CREATURES
Apr 08 - FIRST MAN INTO SPACE / DESTINATION INNER SPACE
Apr 15 - THE NEW INVISIBLE MAN / THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE (cut)
Apr 22 - THE UNDEAD / CAT PEOPLE
Apr 29 - JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF TIME / PANIC IN YEAR ZERO
May 06 - CRACK IN THE WORLD / THE WAR OF THE WORLDS
May 13 - PSYCHOMANIA (cut) / THE FLY
May 20 - RIDER TO THE STARS / DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL
May 27 - THE CREEPING UNKNOWN / DONOVAN'S BRAIN
Jun 03 - THE ATOMIC SUBMARINE / THE MONSTER THAT CHALLENGED THE
WORLD
Jun 10 - SHE DEMONS / FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER
Jun 17 - ZONTAR THE THING FROM VENUS / TERROR IN THE CRYPT
Jun 24 - SPACE MONSTER / THE TERROR
Jul 01 - REPTILICUS / THE WEREWOLF
Jul 08 - VOYAGE TO THE PLANET OF PREHISTORIC WOMEN / EARTH VS
FLYING SAUCERS
Jul 15 - THE MAD MAGICIAN / THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN
Jul 22 - DR ORLOFF'S MONSTER (cut) / DEMENTIA 13
Jul 29 - DAY THE WORLD ENDED / CIRCUS OF FEAR
Aug 05 - DAGORA THE SPACE MONSTER / CASTLE OF THE LIVING DEAD
Aug 12 - CIRCUS OF HORRORS (cut) / THE BLANCHEVILLE MONSTER
Aug 19 - THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN / THE BEAST OF MOROCCO
Aug 26 - GODZILLA VS THE THING / KONGA
Sep 02 - THE ANGRY RED PLANET / TERROR IN THE CRYPT

The September 2 broadcast reportedly marked the final appearance by the Cool Ghoul, who closed out as he opened - by presenting TERROR IN THE CRYPT! WXIX would continue to run horror films in the Saturday night slot through Halloween, replacing the CREATURE FEATURE intro with episodes of the classic Boris Karloff series THRILLER. The remaining unhosted horror films in this time slot were:
 
Sep 09 - TOWER OF TERROR
Sep 16 - THE TERROR
Sep 23 - HORROR CASTLE (cut)
Sep 30 - THE FLESH EATERS (cut)
Oct 07 - BLACK SABBATH
Oct 14 - CURSE OF THE FLY
Oct 21 - X THE MAN WITH X-RAY EYES
Oct 28 - THE INVISIBLE MAN

Dick Von Hoene left WXIX at the end of October 1972 and subsequently took a job as a news announcer at radio station WUBE-AM. The Cool Ghoul continued to make personal appearances in the greater Cincinnati area.

My thanks to Craig Boldman, Steven Thompson, Joe Busam and Tom Holtkamp for their additional research. 

(c) 2015 by Tim Lucas. All rights reserved.