I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday! As usual, we watched The Creature from the Black Lagoon, a Thanksgiving tradition in my family. After it finished my uncle suggested we watch The Blob. Wow, now that was a B movie if ever I saw one. Ah yes, Thanksgiving, a time for family, pumpkin pie and monster movies…

So I knit up this beret while we were in Portland. It’s from the book Handmade Underground Knitwear: 25 Fun Accessories for All Seasons by Laura Long and Melissa Halvorson. I can’t say the name of the beret as it shares the name of the recipient (and I do believe she reads my blog occasionally), but if you’re interested in knitting it, the beret can be found on p. 61.

I really wasn’t too taken with many of the other projects in this book, but I think this hat is just too cute! It knit up so darn fast that I’m tempted to knit another. I have extra yarn since I bought double what I needed. The pattern calls for 2 skeins of Misti Alpaca Chunky at 108 yds each (for a total of 216 yds). I’m convinced that’s a typo in the book, since I used just under 108 yds of the Frog Tree Alpaca Chunky. Just FYI.

Pattern: ***** Beret from the book “Handmade Underground Knitwear”
Yarn: Frog Tree Alpaca Chunky
Needles: size 10 US
Gauge: 16 sts and 20 rows = 4″

Next time I think I’ll go up to size 10.5 needles because the beret seems just a little snug, but I haven’t blocked it yet which could change everything…

In my second look at the Universal monsters, I look at the second sequel in the Creature from the Black Lagoon series.

For those of you not familar with this Universal Monster, the series chronicles the exploits of The Gill-Man, an underwater being who is part-man, part-lizard and part-fish. In the first film he is uncovered when a scientific expedition stumbles upon while journeying up the Amazon river. He attacks the boat as he tries to protect his feeding ground and captures a lovely blonde lady. The movie was basically an aquatic version of The Mummy or Frankenstein mixed with nature. The 1954 movie would inspire the creation of comicbook characters Swamp Thing and Man-Thing.

The Creature From the Black Lagoon was followed by a sequel Revenge of the Creature in 1955, which strangely featured Clint Eastwood and finally Creature Walks Among Us in 1956.

The events in “Walks” feature a scientific/hunting expedition to track down the Gill-Man and capture him for scientific study. Because every movie in this series must feature a scantily clothed blonde (Leigh Snowden), one of the scientists, who also happens to be rich, brings his wife along.

Using sonar, spearguns and a flame thrower, they track the Gill-Man into the Florida Everglades where they confront him and he attacks. The Gill-Man is flambeed and the hunters capture him but he has third-degree burns over 90% of his body. These aren’t the smartest scientists ever assembled. What is their next hunting trip, going after squirrels with a bazooka.

Barbecued Gill-Man! It tastes like chicken!

The movie seems to feature more scenes with the blonde, her overly-possessive husband (Jeff Morrow) and one of the other chisel-chested scientists (Rex Reason). There is one scene where the blonde goes diving with the team and as the team is tracks the Gill-Man the director would cut to scenes of her doing synchronized swimming. It was the dullest scene in the film and went on for hours.

1.5 out of 5

Watch the Film Features Index and Weird Wednesdays for more in the Universal Monsters series.

Every August, the church we went to in Birmingham had a Friday night sleepover at the preacher’s house for the high school young people. Thinking about it, my heart goes out to the family, to let about 100 teenagers invade their house.

My friend Lynn brought her best friend to the first one we went to, and that was that. My brother was smitten, and she became his girlfriend, then his wife. Lynn also brought her little portable record player and a huge stack of 45s she had. I remember listening to “Michael, Row the Boat Ashore,” among others, and was so impressed that she had all of the latest hits. Lynn was the first person I knew who had Ray Charles records since most people didn’t listen to music by African Americans.

Everyone congregated in the basement of the preacher’s house where we played games or sat around and talked. Around midnight, they showed scary movies such as the original “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” and “The Maze.”

The 1956 version “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” with Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter was re-made in 1978 with Donald Sutherland and Brooke Adams, but it lost something in translation. When we saw the movie in 1961, it was in glorious black and white, which somehow made it more frightening. Now the movie is considered to be a thinly veiled allegory on the evils of communism, coming as it did in the McCarthy era – Joe, not Kevin. It’s a good one to look at if you want to see what cold war hysteria looked like. A town doctor discovers that all of the people in the town are being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.

“The Maze,” on the other hand, was pretty cheesy. The soundtrack was classic – the spooky music told the audience every time something scary was happening. Richard Carlson, who also starred in “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” breaks off his engagement and moves to his uncle’s castle in Scotland. When the girl follows him a few weeks later, she finds he’s aged considerably. Why? What lurks there that only comes out at night to wander the castle’s maze, leaving bizarre-looking wet footprints?

As in “The Maze,” the music is what I remember most about 1954’s “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” the music and the image of the creature carrying Julie Adams into a cave. A scientific expedition traveling up the Amazon River encounters a dangerous humanoid amphibious fish creature. Unlike 1999’s “Lake Placid,” however, they blow the creature to smithereens. I think the theme of bizarre creatures turning up, both in “The Maze” and “Creature” is similar to the Japanese monster movies of the 1950’s (my favorite is “Mothra”). People were afraid of what unleashing the atom bomb on the world might have created, and it showed in these so-called horror movies. Next to the “Saw” series, of course, these might well be rated “G” – as in GOOD GRIEF, weren’t movies better back then!

After the scary movies were over at our sleepover, around 1am, the girls said goodnight to the boys and headed upstairs. We were all pretty good kids, so I doubt the door between hims and hers was even locked. Besides, this was the preacher’s house! We had each brought blankets and made beds for ourselves on the floors. I preferred the living room with its deep pile carpeting.

We were up pretty early the next morning for a donuts and orange juice breakfast, and most of us were headed home by 8am. I learned the first year that my best option was to mumble a little and take a nap until my head cleared.

I doubt things like the sleepover still happen anywhere. Teenagers aren’t as naive and inexperienced as we were, and movies aren’t as innocent as they were. I have learned that there are some movies I’m not cut out to see.

In 1978, I let one of my roommates talk me into going to see “Jaws 2” at a theater. I’d steadfastly refused to see “Jaws,” knowing I’d never go in the water again if I did. The movie horrified me, and at one point, the ten year old sitting next to me starting crying, “Lady, lady, let go of my arm. It’s only a movie!” I realized I’d grabbed him, a total stranger, and was wringing his left arm in fear. The mother glared at me and disengaged her son from my grasp. Fortunately, they didn’t press charges.

©2009 jgschenck

Huzzah! The first Springfield story I’ve posted. I’ve written another, but it’s still being fixed. Anyhoo, for those of you new to Springfield, it’s a town full of superheroes and villains and assorted powered and unpowered people. And some other friends and I have come up with all the characters, one of which you’re about to get to know very well (and for that I’m very sorry.) This is Lyle, originally of Bel Air, California, a senior at Springfield High, captain of the swim team, with the power of breathing underwater. He’s planning on throwing a super-scary Halloween party while the rest of the town goes about their strange ways, but we’ll see how that goes…

     Ah, Halloween. For Lyle Macintyre it was the greatest of all holidays. Why? It was simple. His annual super-scary Halloween bash. He had invited the entire cool population of Springfield High—which, granted, was a lot smaller than the entire cool population of his former Bel Air high school. Nonetheless, he had planned on going all out on the party this year, and tonight, as he walked through his completely decked out house for one final check before the guests showed up, he knew that he had followed through with that.
     Every nook and cranny of the house was covered in something creepy. Cobwebs hung in the doorways and windows, severed heads and body parts littered the floor, and jack-o-lanterns sat on tables and counters, their menacing smiles flickering from the candles inside them. He’d even gotten a few of those mechanized candy bowls with skeleton hands that grab you as you reach in. A playlist mixed with creepy sound effects and Halloween-themed songs boomed from the sound system. Now all that was missing were the guests.
     The guests were going to be the most exciting part of the night for Lyle. He had made sure to invite every hot girl in the high school; even some freshmen, which was a social risk, but one Lyle knew he could overcome.
     Lyle walked by a mirror in the hallway and had to double-take before he remembered he was in costume. He thought he looked pretty sick tonight (more literally than usual); he’d chosen to dress up as the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Not only because it fit with his power (he thought he was pretty clever to think of that all on his own), but also because the Creature knew how to pick up the hotties. Seriously, he’d learned something from that movie.
     He thought all this as he looked into the mirror and the Creature stared back at him. All he was actually wearing was one of his swimsuits; the rest of him was covered in fake seaweed and algae. And he meant covered, as in head to toe. He had fake claws on his hands and feet and had even swung for some vampire fangs. His hair was dyed green, and his face had on some green makeup, normally used for witches and stuff like that. He was truly a monster tonight.
     Just then, the doorbell rang. Lyle caught one more look at himself, gave his reflection a smug wink, and walked to the door. He wondered who his first “victim” of the night would be as he turned the knob and pulled open the door.
     At first he saw no one. He was momentarily confused, until he looked down and saw not a girl, but a little boy, probably around four, standing on the doorstep. He was dressed like a cowboy and held out a pumpkin-shaped candy holder.
     There was an awkward silence until a voice came from down the walkway. Lyle looked out and saw the boy’s parents standing on the sidewalk. The kid’s mom said, “What do you say, honey?”
     The little one turned and looked at his mom, and then a light seemed to turn on in his head. “Oh yeah,” he muttered and looked back up at Lyle. “Twick or tweat!”
     Lyle thought that if any of the girls he’d invited would have been here right now, they would have gone, “Awww!” The girls he’d invited were the kind to do that. They did it all the time at school when they talked about jewelry or clothes or whatever. And then Lyle remembered the present moment and said, “Right…just a second.” And he closed the door and ran into his kitchen. He’d completely forgotten about trick-or-treaters! How could he forget that? He’d have to sacrifice some of the candy he was going to scare the girls with. He grabbed the skeleton-hand bowl and went back to the door.
     When he opened it again, the kid was just turning away to leave. Maybe slamming the door in his face hadn’t been the best idea…Oh well. He said, “Hey kid.” The boy turned back around, and Lyle held out the bowl. “Here you go.”
     The kid smiled extra wide and reached into the bowl. Little did he know what was coming. When he got too close to the candy, the plastic skeleton arm lurched down and grabbed the kid’s hand, and the accompanying sound effect played. The kid screamed and pulled his arm away, then turned and ran all the way back to his parents. Lyle watched all this, stuck between shock and bursting out laughing, until the boy’s parents glared at him as they walked away, comforting their crying son.
     Lyle watched after them awkwardly, then closed the door. “Okay, no more trick-or-treaters tonight,” he decided to himself and went to put the candy back.
     Twenty minutes later, the party had officially started, but nobody had showed up. Had he given out the wrong address on the invites? Sadly, it wouldn’t have been the first time. But he was sure he gave it right this time; he had made sure to double check.
     Relief sank into him when the doorbell rang, finally. Fashionably late must be the style here, he thought to himself as he opened the door.
     Excited for the party to start, he shouted out, “Come on in and let’s pump! It! Up!” before he realized there were a small group of children standing in front of him this time. There was a Frankenstein’s Monster, a mummy, an angel, and…something Lyle could only guess was a marshmallow that blew up.
     “Um, sir?” the exploded marshmallow said. “We’re not allowed to come in. Our parents said not to.”
     “Or pump it up,” the mummy said matter-of-factly.
     “Uh…hang on, kids,” Lyle said, his shoulders sagging underneath the algae. As he went to get the candy bowl, this time leaving the door open, he began to wonder if his reign of popularity wasn’t as influential as he thought it was. He returned to the door and held out the bowl, not caring whether or not the kids got scared by the skeleton.
      But these kids were older, and as the angel reached for it, the mummy warned her, “Watch out, I have one of those at home. It’ll grab you.”
     “Really?” the angel asked and reached in. As the hand moved down, she laughed. “Cool!”
     Lyle watched as the kids all got their candy. As the marshmallow got his, Lyle’s curiosity got the better of him and he asked, “Hey kid, what’re you supposed to be?”
     The marshmallow looked up to him and said resentfully, “I’m a sheep!”
     “Oh. Sorry,” Lyle said. As they left, most of the children said thank you. The sheep did not.
     Lyle closed the door and banged his head against it. Was this a sign? Was nobody coming to his party? Had he convinced his mother to go out on a date tonight so he could throw this party behind her back for nothing? Was he becoming, heaven forbid, uncool? Talk about a Halloween nightmare.
     He was about to spiral further into the abyss of loserdom when the bell rang again. Desperate this time, he opened the door as fast as he could.
     At first he was excited when he saw a teenager standing outside. But the feeling faded when he realized it was one of the high school kids he didn’t invite. As if Lyle’s thoughts of losers had beckoned him here, Seth mercury stood on the porch, wearing a huge purple robe and a matching hat. They had stars on them. Lyle was so busy coming up with insults in his mind that he barely noticed the little dinosaur standing next to Seth. But he did see something short out of the corner of his eye, and he held out the candy bowl in the vague direction of the little kid.
     Seth looked a little stunned when he saw Lyle. “Oh, this is your house? I didn’t know that…”
     In response Lyle arched an eyebrow at Seth and flashed his best condescending smirk.
     “Nice dress,” he said.
     Seth shifted awkwardly, but the little kid made his presence known as he shouted up to Lyle, “It’s NOT a dress, it’s a robe! A dinosaur wizard’s robe!”
     Lyle looked down and met the eyes of the little boy. He was dressed up like a T-Rex or something. “Right. Have some candy, kid.”
     “My name is Timothy,” said Timothy. “Not kid.”
     Lyle ignored him and continued holding out the candy bowl. Timothy seemed very picky about which candy he wanted. Lyle looked back up at Seth, who was staring intently at him. “What?” Lyle demanded, spitting out the word.
     “So…” said Seth. “What are you, a mermaid?”
     Lyle stared at the dregs of the high school, unimpressed. He responded flatly, “No.”
     “Merman?”
     “No.”
     “Oh.”
     And then it got quiet. The only sound was that of Timothy rummaging through the candy bowl, completely ignoring the skeleton hand repeatedly attacking his own. Lyle looked back down to find that the boy had been taking not just one, but several pieces and sneaking them into his candy bucket.
     “Hey!” Lyle said, pulling back the bowl. A few more pieces fell out on the way, and Timothy picked them up in a flash and put them up in his bucket too.
     “Well,” Timothy justified himself, “I took a piece, but you kept holding it out. I thought you wanted me to take more.”
     “Whatever, kid, enjoy,” Lyle answered, staring back at Seth, his eyes penetrating the weirdo’s until he looked away. Which didn’t take long.
     “Come on, Timothy, let’s check out the other houses,” said Seth, turning away to leave. Timothy reluctantly followed him, taking a moment to glare up at Lyle before he did so. Lyle watched the two walking away, and then picked up a piece of candy out of the bowl and tossed it in his hand. And then he looked at Seth the dinosaur wizard and chucked the piece of candy at the back of his hand.
     The reason he never played baseball came back to him as the candy missed his head completely. It did, however, hit the very tip of his wizard’s hat and make it fall to the ground. Seth glanced back at him with a pathetic look, but Lyle never saw the little one move as Timothy picked up the piece of candy and threw it right back at him. It hit Lyle square in the forehead and got stuck in his seaweed.
     Before he could see Seth’s reaction, Lyle slammed the door shut and pulled the candy out of his costume, staring at it bitterly. He’d pretend that didn’t happen, and deny any rumors that Seth happened to bring up on Monday.
     The doorbell rang again. Lyle stared at the door. It was that kid, coming back for more. That kid was trouble, he knew it. He was probably going to use all that candy he took as ammo. But Lyle had a whole freaking bowl full of ammo! He was gonna lay that kid down. And Seth too, if he was there too.
     Smirking to himself, he pulled the door open and pelted the kid with as many candies as he could hold in one handful.
     “Take that, suckas!”
     There was one problem. Seth and Timothy were long gone, and the person he pelted was one of the freshmen beauties he had invited. He realized this too late, and the girl got hit by a handful of chocolates and fun-size pouches.
     She screamed. And not the good kind of scream Lyle had been looking forward to hearing all night. The kind of scream telling him that she was pissed. Sadly, Lyle knew this kind of scream better than would admit. “I was gonna take pity and come to your party, you jerk!” she shouted.
     “What do you mean, take pity?” Lyle asked, more concerned about this than the girl’s yelling.
     “Everyone’s walking around town. Most people are at the coffeeshop and the boutique doing all the contests and all that stuff. Everybody I talked to said they’d rather do the town thing, and I felt bad, so I was gonna come see how you were doing. But now I’m leaving. Bye!” And she turned to leave.
      Lyle had listened to all this with utter disbelief. No one wanted to party at his place? They all preferred hanging around with the freaks and closeted superheroes that Springfield had to offer?! He called after the girl, flustered. “Baby, come back! We’ll have a party all to ourselves!”
     “No way!” she shouted back, turning around halfway to the sidewalk. “And you look like pond scum!” And just like that, she was gone.
     Lyle leaned against the doorway, his social world crashing down around him. Great. Something else he would have to deny on Monday. What would he say when his friends at lunch asked him how the party was. “What party?” Yeah, good try Lyle, they would say. And they would laugh.
     Letting out a sulky huff, Lyle slammed the door shut and began to take down the decorations. He hated Halloween.

If you’d like to read more Springfield stories (and probably better written ones!) check out The Art of Observation  and For the Love of Truth. Also, if you’re curious about Springfield, you can look the world and the characters here.

With Halloween around the corner I thought we needed an image dump with a theme! Enjoy

Unless otherwise noted Circa71 does not claim any copyrights to images that appear on Circa71.wordpress.com.

27 x 40 Movie Poster!

Fade to Black is a 1980 slasher film starring Dennis Christopher, Eve Brent Ashe, and Linda Kerridge. Mickey Rourke also features in a small role. The film was nominated for many Saturn Awards, and Eve Brent Ashe won one for Best Supporting Actress.

Tagline:  Meet Eric Binford, the ultimate movie buff. If you know someone like him… run!

Trivia:

Linda Kerridge

410 BC has just put up an amazing new tee titled “From the Black Lagoon” for pre-order.  This design features the classic movie monster from Creature from the Black Lagoon and portrays him as a civilized being who is busy reading a book while smoking a pipe. It’s wonderful to see a break from the newest line’s direction, since I am a huge fan of unique characters. This tee also features a large back print that adds to the design and ties it all together. You can pre-order “From the Black Lagoon” for $15.99 at the 410 BC Big Cartel shop, 50% off the normal retail price when it officially drops! And remember to use the code “LTT” to take an additional 10% off on top of that! Only 25 people will be lucky enough to purchase the tee on pre-sale, so be sure to act fast.

<object width=”425″ height=”344″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/74A3mUYmRFY&hl=en&fs=1&”></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/74A3mUYmRFY&hl=en&fs=1&” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed></object>Humanoids From The Deep 1980
Director: Barbara Peters
Writer: Frederick James
Starring Doug McClure, Ann Turkel, Vic Morrow, Cindy Weintraub, Anthony Pena, Denise Galik and Lynn Theel

Boobs and blood. That is the first two things that come to mind when you mention Humanoids From The Deep. The film is kind of a hybrid between Alien and The Creature From The Black Lagoon. Albeit, much sleazier than those 2 films ever tried to be. From the opening attack to the ending this film pulls no punches. It is easily one of the sleaziest films that Roger Corman has produced and that is a great compliment, as I love my low budget horror film the sleazier the better. It has a great cast which is headed up by the always fun to watch Doug McClure and the brooding Vic Morrow. They really make the film even more enjoyable and give it some depth past the gratuitous sex and violence. What is amazing too, is that such a macho centric low budget horror film was directed by a woman. Seems that whenever there is a chance to rip a female’s clothes off they do not miss one opportunity. It really is not a film for the squeamish or the easily offended.
The plot basics are this, we come to a Pacific Northwestern fishing town who’s fishing trade is under extinction due to a salmon cannery that is opening and will be putting most free fishermen out of business. But with all the work that has been done in prepping the cannery it is discovered that fish have mutated into humanoids bent on killing everything in sight, except for the women who they use to breed with. Jim Hill (McClure) along with Dr. Susan Drake (Turkel) discovers the humanoids and tries to warn the town the night of the annual SalmonFest, when the humanoids attack killing every man they find and raping every woman they corner. It all leads to a bloody ending that ends with a horrific ending.
This is really a fun movie. Peters’ direction is good, at times campy and at other times very sensationalistic. The film really has a pulpy feel to it. If it was a story in Weird Tales, you could just picture the cheesecake cover that would accompany it. The script is good, nothing groundbreaking, but for the story it is given it does a good job. The characters are all the stereotypes you see in genre films such as this. From the stoic hero, the racist jerk and the scientist who knows all about the problem and has all the answers. Not a story you have not witnessed before but still enjoyable to experience. The acting is good, McClure is at his usual best, but the best performance has to go to Morrow as the racist defender of the cannery. He just chews the scenery up with every scene he is in, and it is a fun ass time watching him do so. The SFX in the film are quite good, very bloody and realistic. The final scene in particular, as that is one of the gore scenes I remember most, it really made quite a impression on my psyche. This is not a film for the faint of heart or the easily offended. But, if you love your genre films sleazy and unrepentant as hell, check it out.
This one gets 4 out of 5

I know that normally this blog is pretty much running on movie reviews and that’s because I’ve been a huge fan of movies since I was probably around 4 or 5. Back in those days I would sit around on a Sunday afternoon at my Grandparents and watch old horror flicks, if Godzilla or The Creature From The Black Lagoon were really that horrific anyway.

Later on I remember moving to Brampton, where I currently still live, around the age of 10. The first few friends I made here were absolute horror movie fanatics. We started renting any and all horror flicks we could get our hands on, good or bad. That’s how I managed to watch all the Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Hellraiser, Child’s Play and Texas Chainsaw Massacre series as well as countless other one shots at horror. I’m sure I could fill pages and pages with the titles we sat through.

When the internet came about (yeah, I’m old enough to remember when there was no internet. We got all our learning from that library thing) it was like an explosion of movies. Now I could read about what everyone else was watching, hear all the info and all the gossip. There’s so much info out there that I can’t keep it all filed in my brain. I’ve learned about entire new genres of film and lately have gotten great recommendations from fellow bloggers.

It still all comes down to those moments years ago when I sat with Godzilla. A lifetime of obsessive movie love built around one guy in a rubber suit. Since I had kids I’ve been trying to figure out how to get that love of films drilled into them. This blog seems to really interest my daughter and will probably be a stepping stone into the world of movies. I don’t see quite the same love in them that I have but it’s starting.

Now horror flicks aren’t the same as they used to be. They can be downright frightening to small children now. Godzilla really wasn’t that scary when I was small but Jason Voorhees seems to really scare my kids. Even the sound of the music from another room sent my son crying up the stairs once! HAHA! That’s when I came across something that has begun to build into another hobby for me. The creepy kids book. In particular Ryan Heshka’s ABC Spookshow. It was the first book I bought for the kids (yeah right, for the kids) that was still in the vein of horror without scaring them so bad they couldn’t sleep. Now whenever I hit a book store, comic store or random movie store I resume the search for more of these types of books.

Night Fright, Frankenstein Takes The Cake

The Dangerous Alphabet, Little Gloomy's Trick or Treat Special

ABC Spookshow, Bigfoot I Not Dead, Peter The Pirate Squid

Always Run Up The Stairs

The collection isn’t that big yet, money usually plays a factor in something like this, but it grows slowly. It’s kinda hard to find books with the right balance of creep factor and child approval, although Bigfoot, I Not Deadis not for kids. It is hilarious though! I’ll give you the list and links to check them out if you’re interested. I apologize that some of the links only lead to Amazon, it’s the most interesting links I could come up with!

• Peter The Pirate Squid by Roman Dirge, Steven Daily
• Bigfoot, I Not Dead by Graham Roumieu
• Little Gloomy’s Trick or Treat Halloween Special by Landry Walker, Eric Jones
• ABC Spookshow by Ryan Heshka
• The Dangerous Alphabet by Neil Gaiman, Gris Grimly
• Always Run Up The Stairs by Sean Moore
• Frankenstein Takes The Cake by Adam Rex
• Night Fright by Rod Green, Rob Biddulph

I know some of you readers out there has tiny children, probably biting at your ankles right this moment. Does anyone else do this to their kids or am I the only one? HAHA! I thought I could at least share the few books that I have picked up in the last couple of years with you guys. I’m also looking for any ideas someone may have for other books I could be on the lookout for.

Some people may find it a little odd to try and get your kids involved in your personal hobbies. They should develop their own hobbies and I’m sure they will. I can imagine that one day they won’t think that Dad is very cool anymore but I hope that they’ll also look back and realize that their annoying, crazy and embarrassing Dad tried to share his love of something with them.

So there’s a little about the evolution of my love for all things creepy, from Godzilla as a small child, to reading every book I could find on ghosts, vampires and other monsters as a tween, to bedtime stories for my own children from the ABC Spookshow. What got your love of film going? I’d love to find out.

Under the marquee – Will

During my summer-term courses I feel it is only fair to break the lecture time up a bit. Rutgers summer courses can run four hours at a stretch, and no matter how valiant the student, no one can pay attention to me for that long. I have long had an interest in the Bible in popular media, so for each class session I show a brief clip of a movie that features the Bible, often in a pivotal role. We then discuss how it is presented. As a personal pork barrel I give the students a multiple choice question on their exams as to which movies we have watched (it also gives them incentive to be in class, I hope). One summer, after sending the exam off to the print office, I realized I’d made a mistake. As usual, my interest in 1950s sci-fi flicks led to trouble. One film I hadn’t shown a clip from, and which I thought was Bible free (I hadn’t seen it in a long time) was The Creature from the Black Lagoon, a perennial favorite for both camp and kitsch.

Of course, The Creature from the Black Lagoon does have the Bible in it. The movie begins with a narrator reading Genesis 1.1. Well, I had to give all the students credit for that question, because there was no wrong answer. Nevertheless, the easy association between beginning the film with the Bible and its evolutionary plot-starter seemed worthy of comment. Back in the 1950s evolution was already a hot-button issue (so I’ve read). Forces lined up on the scientific and biblical fronts faced off like angry hockey players as they swung at that hard black puck of the truth. It does seem odd in a country so heavily reliant on science that the foundation of biology and its benefits (if scientists hadn’t recognized and reacted to the swift evolution among microbes I’d likely not be here typing this sentence) that one particular interpretation of a very small section of the Bible should have the power that it does. I’ve seen carnivorous, chrome-plated bumper Jesus fish eating the peacefully walking Darwin fish! Old metaphorical Moses would be scratching his head, I’m sure.

The Creature was, of course, also a metaphor (if I’m not shoveling out too much credit where it isn’t really due). The sequels to the original film grew progressively worse, but those who have the patience to sit through The Creature Walks Among Us discover that the gill-man is a man after all, under all that green rubber. The beast is us. Not too weighty of a revelation to be sure, but it isn’t too weighty a movie. Like any discriminating Bible reader I choose what to accept and what to explain away. When I watch The Creature from the Black Lagoon, it ruins the story for me to think ahead to the denouement of the gill-man being a real man. It is a passage I simply choose not to accept. (This is, of course, a metaphor.)

What might this be a metaphor for?

According to Screamscape, it sounds as though the “Creature from the Black Lagoon”  stage show at Universal Studios Hollywood may be temporarily closing down, not because people did not like it, but for the Bill and Ted Halloween stage show for the Halloween Horror Nights.  The other news (also from Screamscape) is that just like Disney, Universal Studios has now raised their ticket prices to $69 for adults and to $59 for kids- possibly not getting much money this year due to the fact that many people have been cutting back on spending. That is still slightly less than Disney’s though.

According to Screamscape, as of today or yesterday, the new cheap, “Creature from the Black Lagoon” show at Universal Studios Hollywood may not last much longer due to a small audience and not-so-great reviews of the show. This is all rumored, but it is possible that Creature could shut down in even a month or two!!!

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts I am the merchandiser, and management, for an art store in Philadelphia. It’s still a retail job, which is not always the most glamourous, but it’s flexible to meet my needs and I get to be creative on a daily basis.

So, for the front windows this summer I created (just a hair short of life-size) a Creature From the Black Lagoon scene. It’s gotten so much attention from the passers by I cannot wait to start the Fall’s window display!!

Busty Beach Babe!

The Creature!

The Lagoon Display

This display was so rad! I’m disappointed the glare is so bad on the pic, but you get the idea of the display. The babe, the creature, most of the greenery, and the cave rocks surrounding the top of the window were all hand painted and cut out of foamcore board.. which took forever! The water was created by using blue tinted mylar, and then theres little extras all over the place..  I also hand painted the text on the back wall, which took a full 8 hours to complete to get the appropriate horror-movie effect.

Glad some Philadelphia people appreciated it by taking pictures with it on the regular!

On Monday, Ernie visited Universal Studios Hollywood to check out the new live show, Creature From The Black Lagoon: The Musical. The show is 25min long and has several interesting songs. The show also pokes fun at some things in pop culture, which keeps the show new and fresh. Ernie’s favorite part is when Kay, the female interest of the show, decides to go swimming in the lagoon and she begins to swim above the audience! Ernie being a fan of musicals thought that was brilliant! Although the show has been up and running for a whole month, there were still some technical difficulties at the end which caused some awkwardness among the cast and audience.

Audience: *whispering* “Is it over? Do we clap? Why are they still on stage? …?!”

Cast on stage: Voodoo lady – to the guy who’s swimming (lying down on the stage) “You float very well.”

Swimming guy “I have very good buoyancy.”

Voodoo lady *whispers, but audience can still hear everything because her mic is on* “exit.”

Swimming guy “Fine! I’ll just swim away!”

Audience: silence…?!…”Oh, now we clap.” *Theater erupts into applause*

Ernie doesn’t know if he wants to watch it again, but he may have to go if Batman decides to come next time. As of right now, Ernie is iffy about it, but who knows, it might just be one of those things that will grow on him.

This last week was a busy one at the blog.  Full of fun, cool, and informative stories.  We’ll take you through that excitement one more time.

It began with a report on some bouncy critters, a hairy critter, and some awards for creating critters.

We then moved onto Italian sorcerers, Japanese robots, an Australian actor and three nightmares on Elm Street.

Then it was onto rocks on the moon, a rockin’ creature, a Night tease, and a special year.

Then we were offered treats from a festival, rings at an amusement park, wonder at the movies, and freebies from the BBC.

From there we heard sound in a library, silence in space, laughter in Germany, the sound of thunder from Australia, and the pop of fireworks.

We saw the rise of new technology, the return of strange visitors, an award winner trying horror,  an actor going to the fringe,  a cat comes back,  and snow falls under red skies.

If there’s something you want us to cover let us know.  Either talk about it in the comment section or send an email to ghostradioinfo@gmail.com.

It’s your blog just as much as it is ours.

Plus, if you need a copy of the GHOST RADIO the book this site is all about, you can order one here.

By Maria Puente, USA TODAY

They’re back —Bonnie and Clyde, Dillinger and Baby Face, Jekyll and Hyde, Holmes and Watson. Say hello again to Robin Hood, the Wolf Man, the Lone Ranger, Frankenstein, the Invisible Man and Conan the Barbarian. Hamlet, dear boy, long time, no see! They have all been here before, and soon they’ll all be here again, dashing across big screens around the world, drawing in a new generation of moviegoers perhaps unfamiliar with earlier versions of these characters.Or so Hollywood hopes.

Exhibit A: Public Enemies, out Wednesday and starring Johnny Depp as the charming and public-relations-savvy bank robber John Dillinger in a retelling of how the early FBI got its man in 1934. (It was messy and bloody, and innocent people were caught in the crossfire.)

Real-life “public enemies” such as Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, and Bonnie and Clyde were celebrities to Depression-era Americans who cheered them for stealing from despised banks. By the 1940s and through the 1970s, Hollywood made scores of movies and TV shows about Dillinger and his gang. Now, in the midst of an economic calamity and multiple bank bailouts, Universal hopes a sexy outlaw targeting bankers and outwitting brutal G-men will resonate with audiences.

“It’s hard to predict, but (banks) are not going to garner an undue amount of sympathy — let’s put it that way,” jokes Enemies director Michael Mann. He’s not concerned about past Dillinger movies; he knows most moviegoers will be more familiar with Depp than with Dillinger, but he believes they’ll be drawn to a story about a “fascinating life.”

But you have to wonder about all this effort being lavished on movies that have been made before, even if the characters and stories are being presented in fresh ways. Surely today’s filmmakers haven’t run out of new characters or creative juice. Maybe it’s the result of the crashed economy, as risk-averse studios fall back to familiar (and proven) moneymakers.

Call them insurance policies

Or maybe it’s a matter of tradition and history: As in any art form, entirely new stories are relatively rare; what came before is recycled and reimagined to make new art.

“The idea of re-using characters and remaking films goes back to the earliest days of Hollywood, but the flood today does seem rather stunning,” says UCLA film historian Jonathan Kuntz. “But with so much riding on major pictures costing hundreds of millions, they want some kind of insurance. Taking a story or character already well known makes it easier to market, to get that opening weekend box office at a reasonable level.”

It will not have escaped Hollywood’s notice, Kuntz says, that characters such as Batman and the Mummy, each dating back decades, have been enormously successful in recent revivals. No wonder, then, that Universal, long known as the studio of monster movies, would return to its archive: The Wolfman (original 1941) is due in November with Benicio Del Toro; The Invisible Man (original in 1933) is scheduled for 2011; and planning has begun for Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954).

So it’s back to the past — only with better (and more expensive) special effects. “There’s always talk in the Hollywood press about this— ‘Do we have to recycle everything all the time, why can’t we come up with new characters?,’ ” says David Gross, editor of MovieReviewIntelligence.com, which analyzes movie reviews from newspapers around the USA. “There’s not a whole lot new under the sun, so if you have to go back to the well every 20 years, there’s a new generation of moviegoers (to attract).”

Most of nearly two dozen coming movies are based on classics of English literature or Western folklore, with American comics, pulp fiction and TV series thrown in. Thus: Frankenstein; The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; and the Sherlock Holmes mysteries. Also: Conan the Barbarian (based on 1932 stories by Robert E. Howard, remake of the 1982 film due in 2010); John Carter of Mars (based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs stories, coming in 2012 with Taylor Kitsch);The Three Stooges (coming in 2010, with Jim Carrey, Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro); and The Lone Ranger (2012, with part-Cherokee Depp as faithful companion Tonto).

Most have been made multiple times, such as Gulliver’s Travels (2010, Jack Black), A Christmas Carol (November 2009, Jim Carrey) and Disney’s Alice in Wonderland(2010, directed by Tim Burton with Depp as the Mad Hatter), which even Disney has done before, in a 1951 animated feature.

“The other versions haven’t been very good,” says Richard Zanuck, an Alice producer, “and we’ve never seen the story through the eyes of a visionary like (Burton).”

As in literature, certain cinematic characters and themes are returned to repeatedly because they resonate across all boundaries of time, space and cultural milieu. So, every generation needs its own on-screen Hamlet — and now we’re about to get another one: After Lawrence Olivier (1948), Richard Burton (1964), Mel Gibson (1990), Kenneth Branagh (1996) and Ethan Hawke (2000), now comes young heartthrob Emile Hirsch, 24, who is set to play Hamlet next year and is the first actor in his 20s to play the prince of Denmark on-screen at roughly the same age as the character.

Director Catherine Hardwicke and screenwriter Ron Nyswanger say they will present the story as a “contemporary supernatural thriller.”

“Hamlet is the ultimate, alienated young hero, who exposes the hypocrisy of society,” Hardwicke says. “His struggle to find the truth and act on it is universal and particularly relevant to young people today, living in a world that’s in crisis mode on so many fronts.”

Call them universal themes

But does every generation need its own Robin Hood? Even if it’s Russell Crowe and he’s wearing macho armor instead of tights? Maybe so. After all, rob-from-the-rich-give-to-the-poor is an evergreen concept.

Robin Hood, of course, is much older; the character is based on late 12th-century English folklore. Errol Flynn nailed the role in 1938, then Sean Connery in 1976, Kevin Costner in 1991, and Mel Brooks in a comic version in 1993.

Now Oscar-winning Crowe will be the prince of thieves, starring in Robin Hood, due out later this year and directed by Ridley Scott. Producer Brian Grazer says the story was ripe for revisiting, again, because it’s a “universal theme.” (There’s that phrase again.)

Robin Hood “is trying to create equality in a world where there are a lot of injustices,” Grazer told USA TODAY earlier this year. “He’s a crusader for the people, trying to reclaim some of the ill-gotten gains of the wealthy.”

Filmmakers are not only bringing back characters we have seen before. In some cases, there are two sets of filmmakers making films about the same characters at more or less the same time.

Two Holmes and Watson films are in the works. Sherlock Holmes, with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, directed by Guy Ritchie, is out later this year; the second, still untitled with no release date, is a comedy with Sacha Baron Cohen and Will Ferrell. And two Jekyll & Hydes: Jekyll and Hyde, with Forest Whitaker and 50 Cent, out later this year, and Jekyll, with Keanu Reeves, no release date yet.

Also, two William Tells. Errol Flynn played him in a 1953 picture. Now comes William Tell: The Legend, due in 2010, with Jim Caviezel. The second film has a name, Ironbow: The Legend of William Tell, due in 2011, but as of yet no named star.

Who are the audiences for two William Tell movies? He may be a Swiss hero, but to everybody else he’s … well, he’s the opera overture adapted as the theme for The Lone Ranger. But the Tell movies may be the offbeat exception.

“This is not business as usual — this is Hollywood’s attempt to deal with risk in a troubled marketplace,” says Brett Walsh, a producer on the Whitaker/50 Cent Jekyll and Hyde, which he says will follow director Abel Ferrara’s darker, more suspenseful vision of the story.

“Going back to known brands or characters is perceived as a way of protecting your downside risk, because they have an existing value,” Walsh says.

Maybe, but it might also be true that oldies are goodies. And each new generation of moviegoers gets to discover the gems in Hollywood’s archive anew — as is happening already with The Story of Bonnie and Clyde, expected to begin shooting later this year with Hilary Duff as Bonnie.

Tonya Holly, who is writing, directing and producing the movie, says she’s not intimidated by the Oscar-winning 1967 Bonnie and Clyde with Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. Not only has film technology improved in 40 years, but her target audience is filled with moviegoers who are not familiar with the real-life bank robbers and who haven’t seen the earlier film.

“But they know Hilary and Kevin (Zegers as Clyde), and their fan base is going to boost interest,” Holly says. Besides, she says, when it comes to movies, “There are a million ways to tell a story, and the story changes with each storyteller.”

Desktop 800×600 1024×768 1280×768

Print Hi-Resolution (3.9MB)

1890 Monkeyshines 1891 Dickson Greeting 1891 Edison – Newark Athlete, Part I 1893 Men in Blacksmith Shop 1894 Annie Oakley shooting at targets 1894 Edison – Chinese Laundry – November 26, 1894 1894 Edison – Kinetoscope Films from 1894-1896 1895 Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (The Lumière Brothers) 1895 Edison – The execution of Mary, Queen of Scots – August 28, 1895 1895 L’Arroseur arrosé 1895 The Dickson Experimental Sound Film 1896 Bataille de Boules de Neige (Louis Lumière, 1896) 1896 Edison – The Kiss 1896 Fred Ott’s Sneeze 1896 Louis Lumiere – New York,Broadway At Union Square 1896 Rip Van Winkle 1897 Edison – Admiral Cigarette advertisement 1898 Turkish Dance, Ella Lola 1899 Cripple Creek Bar-room Scene (Edison) 1899 Edison – Bicyclist tricks 1900 Edison – Grandma’s Bad Boys 1901 Edison – Boxing Woman 1901 Edison – Circular panorama of electric tower – Pan-American Exposition, 14 August 1901 1901 Edison – The Martyred Presidents 1901 What Happened on Twenty-Third Street, New York City 1902 Le voyage dans la lune 1903 Life of an American Fireman – Edwin S. Porter 1903 Move On 1903 NYC Ghetto Fish Market 1903 The Great Train Robbery Part 1 – Thomas A. Edison 1904 Westinghouse Works Part 1 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire 1909 Princess Nicotine 1910 Jack Johnson -vs- James Jeffries 1914 Cabiria Giovanni Pastrone 1914 Charlie Chaplin – The Kid Auto Race 1914 Der Golem or, The Monster of Fate 1914 Gertie the Dinosaur 1914 The Exploits of Elaine 1915 The Birth of a Nation 1915 The Italian 1916 Intolerance 1917 The Immigrant 1919 Broken Blossoms 1920 The Cabinet of Dr Caligari 1920 The Mark of Zorro 1921 Charlie Chaplin – The Kid 1921 Manhatta 1921 The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse 1922 Buster Keaton – Cops (1 of 2) 1922 Nanook of the North 1922 Nosferatu 1923 Le retour a la raison – Man Ray 1923 Safety Last! 1923 Salome 1924 Body and Soul 1924 Buster Keaton – Sherlock Jr 1924 Buster Keaton – The Navigator 1924 Peter Pan 1924 The Thief of Bagdad 1925 Battleship Potemkin – Odessa Stairs Massacre – Pram 1925 Battleship Potemkin – Son Shot 1925 Charlie Chaplin – The Gold Rush 1925 The Freshman 1925 The Lost World 1925 The Phantom of the Opera 1925 Theodore Case Sound Test – Gus Visser and his Singing Duck 1926 Flesh and the Devil 1926 Son of the Sheik 1927 Buster Keaton – The General 2 1927 It – Clara Bow 1927 Metropolis – Montage 1927 Oktober – 1 1927 Sunrise 1927 The Jazz Singer 1927 Wings 1928 Charlie Chaplin – The Circus 1928 Steamboat Willie 1928 The Cameraman – Breaking the Bank 1928 The Wedding March 1929 Luis Bunuel – Un chien andalou Part 1 1929 Man with a Movie Camera 1929 St. Louis Blues 1929 The Broadway Melody 1930 All Quiet Along the Western Front – Trailer 1930 Morocco 1931 Charlie Chaplin – City Lights 1931 Dracula 1931 Frankenstein 1931 Fritz Lang’s M, ending, 1st part 1931 Le million 1931 Little Caesar 1931 The Champ 1931 The Public Enemy 1932 Freaks 1932 Grand Hotel 1932 Love Me Tonight 1932 Shanghai Express 1932 The Music Box 1932 Trouble In Paradise 1933 42nd Street 1933 Duck Soup 1933 King Kong – ending 1933 She Done Him Wrong – Mae West 1933 Snow White 1933 The Emperor Jones 1934 It Happened One Night 1934 It’s A Gift 1934 Little Miss Marker 1934 Tarzan and His Mate 1934 The Goddess 1934 The Man Who Knew Too Much 1934 The Thin Man 1935 A Night at the Opera 1935 Bride of Frankenstein 1935 Mutiny On The Bounty 1935 Naughty Marietta 1935 The 39 Steps 1935 Top Hat 1935 Triumph of the Will 1936 Camille 1936 Modern Times 1936 My Man Godfrey 1936 Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor – Part 1 1936 Rose Hobart 1936 Show Boat 1936 Swing Time – Trailer 1936 The Great Ziegfeld 1937 A Star Is Born 1937 Hindenburg disaster 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – hi ho 1937 Stage Door 1937 The Awful Truth 1937 The Life of Emile Zola 1937 Way Out West – ‘Blue Ridge Mountains’ 1938 Bringing Up Baby 1938 Love Finds Andy Hardy – Trailer 1938 Olympia 1938 Porky in Wackyland 1938 You Can’t Take It with You 1939 Destry Rides Again 1939 Gone with the Wind 1 – kiss 1939 Gunga Din 1939 La Règle du jeu 1939 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington 1939 Ninotchka clip 1939 Stagecoach 1939 The Wizard of Oz 1939 Wuthering Heights 1939 Young Mr Lincoln 1940 Charlie Chaplin – The Great Dictator 1940 Fantasia 1940 His Girl Friday 1940 Pinocchio 1940 Rebecca 1940 The Bank Dick 1940 The Grapes Of Wrath 1940 The Philadelphia Story 1940 The Shop Around the Corner 1941 Citizen Kane – Final Words 1941 Meet John Doe 1941 Sullivan’s Travels 1941 The Lady Eve 1941 The Maltese Falcon 1942 Casablanca 1 – play it again 1942 Cat People 1942 Holiday Inn – White Christmas 1942 Jam Session 1942 Random Harvest – She’s Ma Daisy 1942 Road to Morocco 1942 The Battle of Midway 1942 The Magnificent Ambersons 1942 To Be Or Not To Be 1942 Tulips Shall Grow 1942 Woman of the Year 1942 Yankee Doodle Dandy 1943 Meshes of the Afternoon – Part 1 1943 Shadow of a Doubt 1943 Stormy Weather 1943 The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp 1944 Arsenic and Old Lace 1944 Double Indemnity 1944 Going My Way 1944 Henry V – Trailer 1944 Laura – Trailer 1944 The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek 1945 Blithe Spirit 1945 Brief Encounter – end 1945 Detour 1945 Les Enfants du Paradis 1945 Mildred Pierce – Trailer 1945 Roma Citta Libera 1945 Spellbound 1945 The Body Snatcher 1945 The Lost Weekend 1946 It’s A Wonderful Life – ending 1946 La Belle et la bête 1946 My Darling Clementine 1946 Notorious 1946 The Best Years of Our Lives 1946 The Big Sleep 1947 Black Narcissus 1947 Brighton Rock 1947 Crossfire 1947 Miracle on 34th Street 1947 Out of the Past 1948 Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein 1948 Bicycle Thieves 1948 Hamlet 1948 Letter From An Unknown Woman 1948 Mr.Blandings Builds His Dream House 1948 Red River 1948 The Red Shoes 1948 The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre 1949 All the King’s Men 1949 Kind Hearts and Coronets 1949 The Heiress 1949 The Third Man – ending 1949 Twelve O’Clock High 1949 White Heat – Top of the World 1950 All About Eve 1950 Gerald McBoing-Boing 1950 Harvey 1950 In A Lonely Place 1950 Rashomon 1950 Sunset Boulevard 1951 A Place in the Sun 1951 A Streetcar Named Desire 1951 An American in Paris 1951 Duck and Cover 1951 Flying Padre – Stanley Kubrick 1951 Strangers on a Train 1951 The African Queen 1951 The Day the Earth Stood Still 1951 The Thing from Another World 1952 High Noon 1952 Hurlements en faveur de Sade – Guy Debord 1952 Ikiru 1952 Magical Maestro 1952 Singin’ in the Rain 1952 The Bad and the Beautiful 1952 The Greatest Show on Earth 1952 The Quiet Man 1952 Umberto D 1953 From Here to Eternity 1953 Le Salaire de la peur 1953 Let’s All Go to the Lobby 1953 Mr Hulot’s Holiday 1 – start 1953 Roman Holiday 1953 Shane 1953 Stalag 17 1953 The Band Wagon – That’s Entertainment 1953 The Hitch-Hiker 1953 The Tell-Tale Heart 1953 The War Of The Worlds 1953 Tokyo Story 1953 Ugetsu 1954 A Star Is Born 1954 Carmen Jones 1954 Creature from the Black Lagoon 1954 Dial M For Murder 1954 House in the Middle Pt 1 1954 La Strada 1954 On The Waterfront 1954 Rear Window 1954 Sabrina 1954 Seven Brides for Seven Brothers 1954 Seven Samurai – Akira Kurosawa 1954 The Caine Mutiny 1954 The Dam Busters 1954 White Christmas 1955 Blackboard Jungle 1955 Kiss Me Deadly clip 1955 Les Diaboliques 1955 Marty 1955 One Froggy Evening 1955 Pather Panchali 1955 Rebel Without A Cause – knife 1955 Richard III 1955 Rififi 1955 The Night of the Hunter 1956 Around the World in 80 Days – Trailer 1956 Don’t Knock The Rock – ‘Tutti Frutti’ 1956 Giant 1956 Invasion Of The Body Snatchers 1956 The Court Jester 1956 The Killing 1956 The Searchers – Trailer 1956 The Ten Commandments – Trailer 1957 12 Angry Men 1 1957 Bridge On The River Kwai 1 1957 Jailhouse Rock 1957 Le notti di Cabiria – Fellini 1957 Paths of Glory 1957 Pyaasa 1957 Rock You Sinners – Brighton Rock 1957 Smultronstället 1957 Sweet Smell of Success 1957 The Seventh Seal 1957 What’s Opera, Doc 1957 Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter 1957 Witness for the Prosecution 1958 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 1958 Mon Oncle 1958 The Defiant Ones – Trailer 1958 The Vikings 1958 Touch of Evil 1958 Vertigo – The Stairs, first time 1959 Anatomy of a Murder – Trailer 1959 Ben Hur – Trailer 1959 Les quatre cents coups 1959 North By Northwest – The Airplane 1959 Shadows 1959 Some Like It Hot 1960 A bout de souffle 1960 House of Usher 1960 La Dolce Vita 1960 Psycho 1960 Saturday Night and Sunday Morning – Trailer 1960 Spartacus 1960 The Alamo 1960 The Apartment 1961 Breakfast at Tiffany’s 1961 Dog Star Man – Prelude 1961 Judgment At Nuremberg 1961 Jules et Jim 1961 West Side Story 1961 Yojimbo 1961The Hustler 1962 Dr No 1962 How the West Was Won 1962 Lawrence of Arabia 1962 Lolita 1962 O Pagador de Promessas 1962 Ride the High Country 1962 The Manchurian Candidate 1962 The Music Man 1962 To Kill a Mockingbird 1963 8 1-2 – dream 1963 Charade 1963 Dog Star Man – Part II 1963 Shock Corridor 1963 The Birds 1963 The Great Escape 1963 The Nutty Professor 1963 The Servant 1964 A Hard Day’s Night 1964 Bande à part 1964 Deus e o diabo na terra do Sol 1964 Dog Star Man – Part III 1964 Dr. Strangelove 1 1964 Empire – Andy Warhol 1964 Goldfinger 1964 Mary Poppins – Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious 1964 My Fair Lady – Wouldn’t It Be Loverly 1964 Zulu 1965 Darling 1965 Dr. Zhivago 1965 For A Few Dollars More 1965 Repulsion – Catherine Deneuve 1965 The Sound of Music 1966 A Man For All Seasons – Trailer 1966 Alfie 1966 Blow-up 1966 Fahrenheit 451 1966 Georgy Girl 1966 La Battaglia di Algeri 1966 Persona 1966 The Endless Summer 1966 The Good The Bad and the Ugly 1966 Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf 1967 Belle de Jour – Luis Bunuel 1967 Bonnie and Clyde 1967 Cool Hand Luke – boiled eggs 1967 Far From The Madding Crowd 1967 Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner 1967 In the Heat of the Night – Trailer 1967 Mouchette 1967 Playtime 1967 Stop, Look and Listen 1967 The Graduate 1967 The Jungle Book – I Wanna Be Like You 1968 2001 Space Odyssey 1 – start 1968 Bullitt 1968 Carry on Up the Khyber 1968 If… 1968 Night Of the Living Dead 1968 Oliver! 1968 Once Upon a Time in the West 1968 Planet of the Apes 1968 Rosemary’s Baby 1968 The Producers – Springtime for Hitler 1968 Why Man Creates 1969 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 1969 Easy Rider – ending 1969 Goodbye, Mr. Chips 1969 Kes – cane 1969 Midnight Cowboy – I’m walking here 1969 The Italian Job – doors 1969 The Sorrow and the Pity – bourgeois 1969 The Wild Bunch 1969 Women in Love 1970 Five Easy Pieces 1970 Love Story 1970 MASH 1970 Multiple Sidosis 1970 Patton 1971 A Clockwork Orange – droog fight 1971 A Touch Of Zen 1971 Fiddler On The Roof – To Life 1971 Get Carter 1971 Harold And Maude 1971 Shaft 1971 Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song 1971 The French Connection 1971 The Hospital 1971 The Last Picture Show 1971 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory – Pure Imagination 1972 Aguirre the Wrath of God 1972 Cabaret 1972 Deliverance – ‘Dueling banjos’ 1972 DT 1972 Frenzy 1972 Last Tango in Paris 1 1972 OffOn 1972 Sleuth 1972 Solaris 1972 The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie 1972 The Godfather – offer 1972 The Poseidon Adventure 1973 American Graffiti 1973 Badlands 1973 Coffy 1973 Don’t Look Now 1973 Enter the Dragon 1973 Frank Film 1973 La Nuit americaine 1973 Mean Streets 1973 Sleeper 1973 The Day of the Jackal 1973 The Exorcist – Pt.1 1973 The Sting 1973 The Wicker Man 1974 A Woman Under the Influence 1974 Blazing Saddles 1974 Chinatown 1974 Foxy Brown 1974 The Conversation 1974 The Godfather, Part II 1974 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre – ending 1974 The Towering Inferno – Trailer 1974 Young Frankenstein – Puttin’ on the Ritz 1975 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – ending 1975 Barry Lyndon 1975 Dog Day Afternoon 1975 Flåklypa Grand Prix – 1 1975 Jaws 1975 Monty Python and the Holy Grail 1975 Nashville 1975 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest 1975 Picnic At Hanging Rock – Trailer 1975 The Return Of The Pink Panther – Karate Kick 1975 The Rocky Horror Picture Show – Damn it Janet 1976 All the President’s Men – Trailer 1976 Car Wash 1976 Marathon Man 1976 Network 1976 Nuts in May 1976 Rocky – Adrian 1976 Taxi Driver – Talking To Me 1976 The Omen 1976 The Outlaw Josey Wales 1976 The Pink Panther Strikes Again 1977 Abigail’s Party 1977 Annie Hall 1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977 Eraserhead 1977 Killer of Sheep 1977 Looking for Mr. Goodbar 1977 Powers of Ten 1977 Saturday Night Fever 1977 Soldaat van Oranje 1977 Star Wars Episode IV – A New Hope – Deathstar1 1978 Dawn Of The Dead – mall 1978 DDD 1978 Every Which Way But Loose 1978 Grease – Summer Nights 1978 Halloween 1978 Midnight Express 1978 National Lampoon’s Animal House 1978 Pennies From Heaven 1978 Superman The Movie 1978 The Deer Hunter 1978 The Last Waltz – The Weight 1979 Alien 1979 All That Jazz – Bye Bye Life 1979 Apocalypse Now – Napalm in the morning 1979 Mad Max and Feral Boy 1979 Manhattan – start 1979 Monty Python’s Life of Brian 1979 Stalker – Tarkovsky 1979 Star Trek The Motion Picture 1979 The Black Stallion 1979 Woyzeck – Herzog 1980 Airplane! 1980 Atlantic City 1980 Flash Gordon 1980 Gregory’s Girl 1980 Heaven’s Gate 1980 Mon oncle d’Amerique 1980 Raging Bull 1980 Superman II 1980 The Elephant Man 1980 The Empire Strikes Back 1980 The Long Good Friday – ending 1980 The Shining – Here’s Johnny 1981 Chariots of Fire 1981 Das Boot 1981 Gallipoli 1981 Mommie Dearest 1981 Raiders Of The Lost Ark 1981 The Cannonball Run – 1 1981 The Evil Dead 1981 The Postman Always Rings Twice 1982 Blade Runner 1982 Boys from the Blackstuff 1982 Conan The Barbarian 1982 ET 1982 Fast Times At Ridgemont High 1982 First Blood 1982 Fitzcarraldo 1982 Gandhi 1982 Koyaanisqatsi 1982 Made in Britain 1982 Poltergeist 1982 Porky’s 1982 Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman 1982 Sophie’s Choice 1982 Star Trek II – The Wrath of Khan 1982 The Draughtsman’s Contract 1982 The Thing 1982 The Thing 1983 A Christmas Story – Oh, Fuuudge 1983 Return of The Jedi 1983 Scarface 1983 Terms of Endearment 1983 The King of Comedy 1983 Trading Places 1983 WarGames 1984 1984 1984 A Passage To India 1984 Amadeus 1984 Dune 1984 Ghostbusters 1984 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 1984 Once Upon A Time In America 1984 Paris, Texas 1984 Police Academy 1984 Repo Man 1984 Stop Making Sense 1984 Stranger Than Paradise 1984 Supergirl 1984 The Karate Kid 1984 The Killing Fields 1984 The Never Ending Story – Trailer 1984 The Terminator 1984 This is Spinal Tap 1985 After Hours 1985 Back to the Future 1985 Brazil 1985 Clue 1985 My Beautiful Laundrette 1985 Out of Africa 1985 Ran 1985 Teen Wolf 1985 The Black Cauldron 1985 The Breakfast Club – dancing 1985 The Color Purple 1985 The Goonies 1985 The Official Story 1985 Weird Science 1985 Witness 1985 Young Sherlock Holmes 1986 9 1-2 Weeks 1986 A Better Tomorrow 1986 A Room with a View 1986 Betty Blue 1986 Big Trouble In Little China 1986 Blue Velvet – start 1986 Caravaggio – Derek Jarman 1986 Ferris Bueller’s Day Off 1986 Flight of the Navigator 1986 Hannah and Her Sisters 1986 Hoosiers 1986 Jean de Florette 1986 Labyrinth 1986 Little Shop of Horrors 1986 Manon des Sources 1986 Mona Lisa 1986 Platoon 1986 Rita, Sue and Bob Too – Bananarama 1986 Short Circuit – Trailer 1986 Stand By Me – 1 1986 The Fly 1986 The Money Pit 1986 The Name of The Rose 1986 The Singing Detective 1986 Top Gun 1986 When the Wind Blows 1987 Der Himmel über Berlin Wings of Desire 1987 Dirty Dancing 1987 Fatal Attraction 1987 Full Metal Jacket – drill sergeant 1987 Harry and the Hendersons 1987 Naayagan 1987 Planes, Trains and Automobiles – waking up 1987 Robocop 1987 The Last Emperor 1987 The Princess Bride 1987 The Untouchables 1987 The Witches of Eastwick 1987 Throw Momma from the Train 1987 Withnail and I – Camberwell carrot 1988 A Fish Called Wanda 1988 Akira 1988 Big 1988 Child’s Play 1988 Coming to America – bride 1988 Dangerous Liaisons 1988 Die Hard 1988 Distant Voices, Still Lives – Trailer 1988 Mississippi Burning 1988 Rain Man 1988 The Accused – lawyer 1988 The Last Temptation Of Christ 1988 The Naked Gun 1988 Who Framed Roger Rabbit 1989 Back to the Future II 1989 Batman 1989 Born on the Fourth of July 1989 Cinema Paradiso clip 1989 Dead Poets Society – ending 1989 Do The Right Thing – 1 1989 Glory 1989 Henry V 1989 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 1989 My Left Foot 1989 Sex, Lies and Videotape 1989 Uncle Buck 1989 Weekend at Bernie’s 1990 Back To The Future III 1990 Dances With Wolves 1990 Edward Scissorhands 1990 Ghost 1990 Goodfellas 1990 Home Alone 1990 Miller’s Crossing 1990 Nuns on the Run 1990 Pretty Woman 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1990 The Hunt for Red October 1991 Beauty and the Beast 1991 Boyz n the Hood 1991 Cape Fear 1991 Daughters of The Dust 1991 Delicatessen clip 1991 Fried Green Tomatoes 1991 Robin Hood Prince of Thieves 1991 Terminator 2 1991 The Commitments 1991 The Silence of the Lambs – fava beans 1991 Thelma and Louise 1992 A Few Good Men 1992 El Mariachi 1992 Home Alone 2 1992 Howards End 1992 Leolo 1992 Malcolm X 1992 Peter’s Friends – song 1992 Reservoir Dogs 1992 The Bodyguard 1992 The Crying Game 1992 The Last of the Mohicans 1992 The Player – Trailer 1992 Unforgiven 1993 Carlito’s Way 1993 Falling Down 1993 Farewell My Concubinet 1993 Groundhog Day 1993 In the Name of the Father 1993 Jurassic Park 1993 Naked 1993 Philadelphia 1993 Schindler’s List 1993 The Fugitive 1993 The Piano 1993 The Remains of the Day 1993 The Wrong Trousers 1993 Three Colours Blue 1993 What’s Eating Gilbert Grape 1994 Chungking Express 1994 Clerks – corpse 1994 Drunken Master II – Final Fight Scene (Part 1 of 2) 1994 Ed Wood 1994 Forrest Gump 1994 Four Weddings and a Funeral 1994 Il postino 1994 Leon The Professional 1994 Muriel’s Wedding 1994 Pulp Fiction – dancing 1994 The Madness Of King George 1994 The Shawshank Redemption 1995 Braveheart 1995 Heat 1995 La Haine 1995 Nine Months 1995 Richard III 1995 Se7en 1995 Sense and Sensibility 1995 The Usual Suspects 1995 The White Balloon 1995 Toy Story 1995 Twelve Monkeys 1996 Brassed Off 1996 Fargo 1996 Jerry Maguire 1996 Romeo and Juliet 1996 Secrets and Lies 1996 Shine 1996 The English Patient 1996 Trainspotting 1997 As Good as It Gets 1997 Boogie Nights 1997 Good Will Hunting 1997 L.A. Confidential 1997 La Vita è blla 1997 Nil By Mouth 1997 The Full Monty – ending 1997 Titanic 1997 Waiting for Guffman 1998 American History X 1998 Elizabeth 1998 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas 1998 Festen 1998 Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels 1998 Lola Rennt 1998 Rushmore 1998 Saving Private Ryan – D-day Scene (1-4) 1998 Taxi 1998 The Big Lebowski 1998 The Truman Show 1999 American Beauty 1999 Being John Malkovich 1999 Fight Club 1999 Magnolia 1999 Office Space – 1 1999 The Green Mile 1999 The Matrix 1999 The Sixth Sense 2000 Amores Perros 2000 Billy Elliot 2000 Chocolat 2000 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2000 Dancer in the Dark 2000 Erin Brockovich 2000 Gladiator 2000 Meet the Parents 2000 Memento 2000 Quills 2001 Amelie 2001 Donnie Darko 2001 Kandahar 2001 Legally Blonde 2001 Lord Of The Rings 2001 No Man’s Land 2001 The Royal Tenenbaums 2001 Wit 2002 Bowling for Columbine 2002 Chicago 2002 City of God 2002 Dirty Pretty Things 2002 Spider-Man 2002 Spirited Away 2002 Talk to Her 2002 The Magdalene Sisters 2002 The Pianist 2003 Finding Nemo 2003 Lost in Translation 2003 Monster 2003 Oldboy 2004 Crash 2004 Der Untergang 2004 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 2004 Fahrenheit 9/11 2004 Gegen die Wand 2004 Hotel Rwanda 2004 Million Dollar Baby 2004 Napoleon Dynamite 2004 Shaun Of The Dead 2004 Sideways – Trailer 2004 Tropical Malady 2005 Brokeback Mountain 2005 Good Night, And Good Luck 2005 March of the Penguinsm – Trailer 2005 The Tulse Luper Suitcases 2005 V for Vendetta 2006 Borat – Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan 2006 Lage Raho Munna Bhai 2006 Little Miss Sunshine 2006 The Lives Of Others

The really important thing today is that you watch this entry in Thrasher’s “Saints & Sinners” tour, which features one of the more blistering bowl sessions I’ve seen pretty much ever – witness, if you will, street skating by Neil Heddings; Sam Hitz’s Matterhorn Screamer 5-0 grind; the corresponding nosegrind; Al Partanen’s caballerial; and my favorite, the determined fakie pump around the bend. Gravette’s ollie-out-ollie-in is the icing on the cake. Yow

The 1935 film, Bride of Frankenstein is widely considered a classic.  Starring Boris Karloff as the monster and Elsa Lanchester as the titular bride, the film was a sequel to the 1931 film “Frankenstein”.  Now, Neil Burger (The Illusionist) is set to direct the re-make, and co-write the script along with Dirk Wittenborn (The Illusionist). 

The film is just one in a line of remakes by Universal that includes “Creature from the Black Lagoon”, and “The Wolf Man” which stars Benicio Del Toro.

Lukas Eggen

By Steven Zeitchik

   Universal and Imagine are breathing new life into “Bride of Frankenstein.”

The companies are in talks with Neil Burger to write and direct their long-stirring remake of the 1935 monster movie. Burger, who would pen the script with writing partner Dirk Wittenborn, most prominently wrote and helmed “The Illusionist,” the Edward Norton magician mystery that earned nearly $40 million for Yari Film Group in 2006.

James Whale’s “Bride of Frankenstein,” which starred Boris Karloff as the monster and Elsa Lanchester as the titular bride, continued the story that began with 1931’s    “Frankenstein.” A monster, on the run from an angry mob, has a series of adventures, and also persuades Dr. Frankenstein to create a mate. The doctor is successful, but the bride (who is not a central character) winds up rejecting the monster at the end of the movie.

The CAA-repped Burger, who also penned and helmed Iraq-veteran pic “The Lucky Ones,” is attached to direct “Dark Fields,” a thriller about a slacker who discovers a drug that makes him sharper. That pic is also set up at Universal, but progress has been slowed since star Shia LaBeouf was forced to pull out last year with a hand injury.

   “Bride” has had a series of stops and starts. About five years ago, “American Splendor” scribes Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini were attached to write the screenplay for the Uni/Imagine update. Their concept was to set the picture in contemporary New York, with a young woman dying and then unnaturally brought back to life (Burger’s version is expected to differ significantly from that concept). Jacob Estes, a writer on Spider-Man spinoff “Venom,” also at one point had been attached to write a draft.

Brian Grazer and Sean Daniel will produce the pic;  Karen Kehela, David Bernardi and Chris Wade will oversee for Imagine.

   Universal is eager to develop reboots of its library of classic monster titles, insiders in the development community said. It is developing a new version of “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” the 1954 Jack Arnold pic about a monstrous fish that a group of travelers encounters in the Amazon, and later this year it will release the Benicio Del Toro-toplined “The Wolf Man,” an update on George Waggner’s 1941 werewolf tale.

“Frankenstein” has been remade numerous times — Mary Shelley’s book sits in the public domain — but “Bride” has had only one other go-round on the big screen: a 1985 version at Columbia starring Sting and Jennifer Beals. In 1999, Bill Condon’s “Gods and Monsters,” a biopic of Whale, showed clips from the film and re-created the bride herself.

Amazon Specials!