DRACULA A.D. 1972

By 1972 the bloom was clearly off of the rose that was Hammer Studios. Beginning with THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957), the small British film company had produced a series of well-mounted Gothic horror films over  the years. The productions were marked by sharp color photography, literate screenplays, inspired directing, beautiful women, moderate amounts of onscreen blood and gore, and solid British actors and actresses, including two legendary genre icons, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.

But as the studio transitioned into the 1970s, the old-fashioned Gothic horror films couldn't compare to the more modern, realistic horrors that were being displayed on movie screens in Great Britain and the United States. In an effort to (you'll pardon the expression) inject new blood into the studios' immensely popular and financially successful Dracula franchise, the decision was made to move the Prince of Darkness from his roots in the 19th century to the modern world. Thus, DRACULA A.D. 1972.

Any Hammer film that features Christopher Lee as Dracula, Peter Cushing as Van Helsing and the drop-dead gorgeous Caroline Munro, can't be a total bomb. These three Hammer stalwarts do their best with the material that was given them in Don Houghton's rather dodgy screenplay. Munro, however, doesn't get enough screen time in my book as she is dispatched rather early in the film as the first victim of the freshly resurrected Count Dracula.

The story revolves around a group of jaded, disaffected youths who are bored and looking for kicks of any kind. They're led by Johnny Alucard (and let's acknowledge here and now that any Dracula movie that uses the name "Alucard", is in trouble from the get-go), who is played by Christopher Neame as a sligthly less vicious thug than Alex (Malcolm McDowell) in Stanley Kubrick's A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971). The gang uses a Satanic ritual to bring the Count (who was killed in 1872 at the beginning of the film by Lawrence Van Helsing) back to life.

One of the members of the group, Jessica (Stephanie Beacham), just happens to be the granddaughter of current day Lorrimer Van Helsing. As the vampire murders start piling up, Van Helsing investigates and is ultimately caught in a race against time to save his granddaughter from the clutches of Dracula.

As said, Cushing, Lee and Munro are the good things about DRACULA A.D. 1972.  Among the bad things is the absolutely wretched musical score by Mike Vickers. It sounds like it was written and performed for a 1970s television cop show rather than a contemporary horror film. And Stephanie Beacham's hairstyle looks like the one Carol Brady (Florence Henderson) sported on THE BRADY BUNCH but with the addition of a mullet-like tail.

DRACULA A.D. 1972 was the next to last film in Hammers' Dracula series. It was followed by THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA (1973), which also had a contemporary setting. It was the seventh Hammer film to feature Dracula and the sixth to star Christopher Lee in the title role. It was also the first time Cushing played Van Helsing since BRIDES OF DRACULA in 1960 and was the first Dracula film to star both Lee and Cushing since the first (and infinitely superior) entry, HORROR OF DRACULA (1958).

Worth watching for die-hard Dracula fans but a far cry removed from the glory that was Hammer Films in its' prime.

THE CORPSE WORE PASTIES

Greetings dear readers and welcome to blog post number 1501! I'm closing in on the sixth anniversary of the blog (started in June 2012). Funny, I never thought I'd want to write a blog until my lovely wife Judy set this one up for me and told me to "start writing." Hard to believe it's been this many years and this many entries. Hope you've enjoyed reading what I've written and sincerely wish that you'll stick around for the next 1500 entries. Thanks!

As regular readers of this blog know, Hard Case Crime is my favorite contemporary book publisher. Whether it's reprinting vintage crime novels or giving first timers a chance at crafting a mystery, you're in for good read when you see the Hard Case Crime logo. THE CORPSE WORE PASTIES is no exception.

Published in December 2009 (#62 in the HCC series), CORPSE is a rollicking who-dunit set in the world of New York City's burlesque sub-culture. The author, Jonny Porkpie, is both the real life "Burlesque Mayor of New York City" and the detective hero of this breezy, funny, fast paced little murder mystery. Victoria, one of the girls in the show that Jonny is emceeing, dies at the climax of her act, an act stolen from another performer. For the grand finale, Victoria drinks a bottle of rat poison, but someone has substituted a bottle of the real thing for the prop bottle. And guess who handed Victoria the deadly bottle? Yep, our man Jonny, which makes him the NYPD's suspect number one and only in the dancer's murder.

Jonny goes on the lam to clear his name and solve the mystery. He's got a who's who of burlesque stars as suspects, all of which had motives and means (and, alas, alibis). And what about the weird guy on the front row at the show the night Veronica died, the one in the overcoat, sunglasses and scraggly beard? Is he merely a perv or could he be the killer? And can Jonny find the guy before the cops catch up to him?

I thoroughly enjoyed CORPSE. It's both a fun murder mystery and a peek into a world I know nothing about. I do have one minor quibble though. There's a wild chase scene across the Brooklyn Bridge in which Jonny is pursued by the members of a heavy metal band. The chase takes place late at night, after 2:00 a.m., when the bars are closed. Jonny makes his escape by leaping from the bridge onto the open top deck of a double decker tourist bus, a bus which carries tourists and a guide. At that hour of the morning? I've been to New York a couple of times and I've taken a bus tour but I don't think they run at two o'clock in the morning. Or do they? Can someone from New York answer this question?

Quibble aside, CORPSE is a winner. It's not the greatest Hard Case Crime novel I've read but it's far from the worst (which would be THE COLORADO KID by Stephen King).

 Check it out.

DEADFALL & QUARRY'S VOTE

I started reading DEADFALL (1967) by Desmond Cory the other day. It was a paperback copy that I'd had on my shelf for years. I've been trying to work my through some of my older books lately under that adage that "you bought 'em, you read 'em". This one had a decent pedigree. It was published by Fawcett and served as the basis for a film of the same name starring Michael Caine.

 I've never seen the film but I have no desire to do so because I couldn't finish this absolutely horrible book. I kept trying to get interested in the plot but the writing was so turgid and the characters so unlikeable, that after forcing myself to plow through three-quarters of the book, I finally decided that life's too short and I don't have to spend time reading a book that just isn't working for me. It's the author's fault, not mine as Cory strains mightily to produce an existential caper novel (an unworkable combination), in this murky tale of a master jewel thief, his bizarre employer, Moreau and Moreau's beautiful (and much younger) wife. I'm quite sure that had I stuck it out to the end, the big reveal would have been that Moreau's "wife" would have turned out to have been his daughter. Yawn.

The point is dear readers, I feel no obligation whatsoever to continue reading a book that I'm not enjoying. I fully and freely give myself permission to stop reading a book at any time and move on to something else that I have a better chance of liking. It's a liberating experience and I urge you to adopt this practice if you haven't already done so.

I'm glad I bailed out on DEADFALL because what I immediately picked up was QUARRY'S VOTE by the ever reliable Max Allan Collins.

Originally published in 1987 under the title PRIMARY TARGET, Hard Case Crime republished the book in 2015 as QUARRY'S VOTE. Sporting a terrific cover painting by the great Robert McGinnis, VOTE finds professional hit man Quarry retired from the killing game. He's married and his young wife is pregnant with their first child when Quarry's past comes calling. He's offered one million dollars for a hit on a third party presidential candidate, an offer he refuses. Quarry's refusal gets his wife and her brother dead and Quarry on the warpath. Note to foolish would be master criminals: don't fuck with Quarry.

Only a cheetah can move faster than the rate at which I turned the pages on this superlative thriller. I've read several of  the QUARRY novels over the years and Collins has yet to disappoint. VOTE is classic Quarry with plenty of violence, smart-ass dialogue, a penetrating look at the modern American political system and a plot twist or two.

I devoured this book in a couple of days, all the while silently giving thanks that I had quit reading the dreadfully dull DEADFALL. I know that it's not entirely fair to compare these two novels because they are, as the saying goes, apples and oranges. But they are both crime novels, a genre that contains certain tropes and elements that, in the hands of a skilled storyteller, can spin gold out of pulp straw. Collins, as he has proven in many of his books that I've read over the years, can perform this feat. Cory, at least in DEADFALL, cannot.

BLACKBOARD JUNGLE

"If we can just get their minds out of comic books"

There were several different types of jungles out there in the American cinema of the 1950s. John Huston's masterful film noir THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (1950) depicted a heist gone wrong, Charlton Heston battled hordes of killer ants in THE NAKED JUNGLE (1954) while corrupt unions permeated THE GARMENT JUNGLE (1957).

And then there's BLACKBOARD JUNGLE (1955) a hard-hitting examination of the then widespread epidemic of juvenile delinquency. The film is one of two in cinema history to open to the sounds of Bill Haley and the Comets classic rock and roll anthem "Rock Around the Clock" (the other being George Lucas's AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973), which is, in my estimation, the best film he ever made).

The screenplay by director Richard Brooks was adapted from the novel by Evan Hunter. Hunter wrote many books, mostly dramas, under his real name while as "Ed McBain", he wrote dozens of crime novels, including the famous 87th Precinct series of police procedurals. I have a hardcover copy of the anniversary edition of BLACKBOARD signed by Hunter. And, years ago, I got to introduce him at a screening of THE BIRDS (1963) at the Paramount Theatre. Mr. Hunter wrote the screenplay for that classic Hitchcock shocker and he was gracious enough to sign a copy of the film notes I wrote for that evening.

BLACKBOARD is the story of idealistic young rookie teacher, Richard Dadier (Glenn Ford) in his first year at North Manual Trades High School, an inner-city school for boys of various ethnic backgrounds. Dadier is threatened by head thug Artie West (Vic Morrow) who leads a classroom full of punks in a constant campaign against "Daddio". Only young Gregory Miller (Sidney Poitier), seems reachable and over the course of the film, he turns from antagonist to supporter of Dadier.

The supporting cast is outstanding. Beautiful Anne Francis plays Dadier's pregnant and worried young wife, Louis Calhern is outstanding as a jaded, seen-it-all teacher, John Hoyt is the hard-nosed principal who demands strict discipline, Richard Kiley is another idealistic new teacher who thinks the ruffians in his math class can be reached through music (it doesn't work) and Margret Hayes is a sexy teacher who is attacked by West and his gang and used as the source of a vicious rumor about a relationship between her and Dadier.

At one point, Dadier, frustrated and angry and willing to meet violence with violence, decides to quit teaching at the school and transfer to a suburban school district where students want to learn. But he's persuaded to stay and sees signs of progress The film climaxes with a classroom knife fight in which the bulk of Dadier's students finally stand up for the beleaguered and embattled teacher.

BLACKBOARD JUNGLE received four Academy Award nominations including Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Black and White Cinematography, Best Black and White Art Direction and Best Film Editing. It's tough and uncompromising and still packs a punch after sixty-three years. The language in one scene includes various racial epithets and the overall tone of the film is matter-of-fact about this horrific social ill that plagued America in the 1950s.

Thumbs up.

A GUY NAMED JOE

It's not hard to see why A GUY NAMED JOE (1943), ranks as one of legendary American director Steven Spielberg's favorite films. This wartime fantasy/drama is full to bursting with sentimentality, humor, romance, and aerial action. In fact, Spielberg remade GUY in 1989 as ALWAYS, updating the setting from WWII pilots to aerial firefighters. It's an impressive, well made film but as always (you'll pardon the pun), the original is the best.

Spencer Tracy stars as cocksure, devil-may-care bomber pilot Pete Sandidge. Pete believes he's the best there is and takes many reckless chances on his missions over Europe. His squadron mate, Al Yackey (Ward Bond who, as you probably know, appeared in every movie made), keeps an eye on Pete and tries to keep him grounded and level-headed. Pete constantly butts head with squadron commander "Nails" Kilpatrick (James Gleason) but Pete, despite his braggadocio, has fallen head over heels in love with a female pilot, Dorinda Durston (the lovely Irene Dunne). Cue the theme song, "I'll Get By (As Long as I Have You)".

But fate steps in when Pete is killed during an attack on a German aircraft carrier (there were no such vessels in WWII). Pete finds himself in aviator heaven where is he befriended by fellow dead pilot, Dick Rumney (Barry Nelson). The commanding officer in this otherworldly realm is "The General" (Lionel Barrymore). He sends Pete and Dick back to earth in the form of invisible "angels" to watch over two young pilots. Dick is assigned to ex-football star, James Rourke (Don De Fore), while Pete draws wealthy young Ted Randall (Van Johnson). All goes well until Ted's path crosses Dorinda's. The two fall in love and Pete is helpless to interfere. Or is he?

A GUY NAMED JOE is a handsome, glossy MGM production, directed by veteran maestro Victor Fleming. One of the cinematographers was the legendary Karl Freund (he shot Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS). The aerial sequences are well-staged combinations of stock footage, miniatures and full-scale mock-ups. The breathtakingly beautiful Esther Williams, although prominently billed on the lobby card above, appears in only one scene as a canteen hostess.

Schmaltzy and sentimental, A GUY NAMED JOE is full of wartime propaganda and paeans to sacrifice and the need to let go and move on. As corny as it all may sound, the cast, script (by Dalton Trumbo and Frederick Hazlitt Brennan), first rate production design and Fleming's masterful direction, sells this hopelessly romantic tear-jerker. Highly recommended.

By the way, I'm convinced that either Stan Lee or Steve Ditko (perhaps both), were fans of this film. The story in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #38 (the last issue drawn by Ditko) was entitled JUST A GUY NAMED JOE. While the story has nothing to do with WWII pilots, I can't believe the film's title didn't influence the comic book creators.

DIE, MONSTER, DIE!

Mad scientist Nahum Witley (a wheelchair bound Boris Karloff), finds out the hard way that it's probably not a good idea to keep a radioactive meteorite in the basement of your ancient family estate. Especially when said basement was home to forbidden rites practiced by your ancestors in an attempt to call forth the dark gods from beyond space and time. The meteorite mutates the local plants and animals, wreaks havoc on Nahum's wife Latetia (Fred Jackson) and the maid, Helga, and ultimately transforms Nahum himself into a jug-eared, bald-headed, silver skinned monster who emits a greenish glow. In fact, he kinda looks like the old Marvel Comics villain, The Radioactive Man.

It's up to puzzled American scientist Stephen Reinhart (Nick Adams), to put a stop to the unearthly menace, saving Susan (Suzan Farmer), Nahum's comely young daughter, from her father and the burning mansion.

DIE, MONSTER, DIE! (1965), with a screenplay by science fiction writer Jerry Sohl,  is loosely based on the H.P. Lovecraft story THE COLOUR OUT OF SPACE.  American International Pictures had enjoyed a great deal of success with their series of Roger Corman directed films based on the works of Edgar Alan Poe and sought to strike an equally profitable vein with a series of films based on Lovecraft stories. Daniel Haller, who had worked as an art director on the Roger Corman Poe pics, was given his first directorial job on DIE and he does an admirable job.

Unfortunately DIE didn't do well enough at the box office to warrant an immediate Lovecraft based film as a follow up. That would have to wait until 1970 with the release of THE DUNWICH HORROR, also directed by Haller. In the interim, Haller directed two biker flicks, DEVIL'S ANGELS (1967) and THE WILD RACERS (1968).

DIE, MONSTER, DIE! is a straight-forward B horror film that despite it's pedigree, never fully captures the otherworldly feel of Lovecraft's prose. Nick Adams is stuck with playing a one-dimensional character, an outsider to the strange English village who is shunned by one and all when he asks directions to the Witley house. Seems there's a history of devil worshipping at the manse, to say nothing of the heavily irradiated countryside surrounding the estate. Suzan Farmer makes a lovely damsel in distress and the sets, make-up and special effects are all passable.

The real joy to be found in DIE, MONSTER, DIE! is seeing the legendary Boris Karloff give 100% in a role that finds him confined to a wheelchair for the entirety of the film. This was probably not a matter of characterization. Karloff, who suffered from a variety of physical ailments towards the end of his life, needed the wheelchair as a matter of mobility. He's a true professional from beginning to end in a part that, while generic and cliched, is still fun to watch.

Dell Comics published a comic book adaptation of DIE, MONSTER, DIE! which I remember reading as a kid (although I never saw the film when it was originally released). I'd love to have a copy of that comic. If anyone reading this has one they'd like to sell at a reasonable price, let me know.




DIE, MONSTER, DIE! isn't a great film by any stretch of the imagination but it's worth seeing if you're a fan of Karloff, Lovecraft and '60s horror films. Check it out.

BACK FROM ETERNITY

One of the last films produced at RKO, BACK FROM ETERNITY (1956) is a remake of FIVE CAME BACK (1939). Both films were produced and directed by John Farrow (father of Mia) and while I haven't seen FIVE, BACK FROM ETERNITY is a solid adventure film.

A violent storm forces a plane to make an emergency landing in an uncharted South American jungle. The crew consists of pilot Bill Lonagan (Robert Ryan) and co-pilot Joe Brooks (Keith Andes). The passengers include an elderly couple, Professor and Mrs. Spangler (Cameron Prud'Homme and Beulah Bondi), gangster Pete Bostwick (Jesse (Maytag Repairman) White), detective Crimp (Fred Clark), a little boy, Tommy (Jon Provost, LASSIE's Timmy), the young couple of Jud Ellis (Gene (BAT MASTERSON) Barry) and Louise Melhorn (the lovely Phyllis Kirk), the blonde bombshell Rena (a smoking hot Anita Ekberg) and looming above them all, a convicted political assassin, Vasquel (Rod Steiger).

The stranded group soon discover that they have landed in head hunter country and it becomes a race against time to make the necessary repairs on the plane and fly out of the valley they're trapped in. But once the repairs are made, it's determined that only five people can safely take off on the plane, leaving four of the group behind. Who stays? Who goes?

Farrow directs the action with a sure, crisp touch and cinematographer William C. Mellor brings a noir atmosphere to many of the scenes. The miniature work is solid and the immense jungle set (containing towering rock cliffs and a full size airplane mock-up) is impressive.

Allegiances and alliances shift throughout the course of the film. Rena falls for Lonagan while Louise jilts Jud (who proves to be an asshole) and turns her affections towards Brooks. The Spanglers become friendly with Vasquel, while Pete becomes a father figure to Tommy. A couple of the characters die before the final choose up of winners and losers and the film ends on a decidedly grim note.

The cast is uniformly solid. It's a good mix of recognizable stars and veteran character actors. But the real pleasure here is watching the insanely over the top performance by Rod Steiger. Sporting an unknown accent, Steiger steals every scene he's in, even when he's doing nothing but standing in the background. He's also the only one of the stranded men to grow a beard during their ordeal, a visual marker that draws further attention to this enormous ham of an actor. I've never seen Steiger play any part in a subdued manner. The man was simply incapable of doing so. I suspect Steiger told Farrow "this is how I'm going to play this character" and Farrow, on a tight schedule and budget, said yes just to get the film finished.

BACK FROM ETERNITY is the type of story you might have found in the pages of a 1950s era men's adventure magazine and as such, it's a well crafted and nicely mounted adventure film.

Thumbs up.

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FIRST TRAIN TO BABYLON

I finished a Max Ehrlich trifecta of sorts last night. First, I read his classic, vintage biker novel THE HIGH SIDE a couple of weeks ago. Then, I happened to watch THE APPLE last night, a second-season STAR TREK episode written by Ehrlich. This morning I finished reading FIRST TRAIN TO BABYLON,  a thriller he wrote in 1955 (the paperback edition, pictured above and which I bought years ago, was published in 1959).

The cover blurbs give away the gist of the story but Ehrlich manages to start the narrative off in one direction before getting to the meat of the narrative. A down on his luck mail sorter, desperate for money to aid his fatally sick son, decides to rob a mail car on it's early morning run from New York City to Babylon on Long Island. He scoops envelopes from various bags, places them in an unlabeled pouch and throws it out of the train window into a culvert. The heavy snowfall will cover the bag long enough for him to recover it later. But two young brothers, out playing with their early Christmas gifts of bright new sleds, find the bag. When they are unable to open it, they hide it in a deserted barn where it remains for the next ten years. The scheming mail carrier, unable to find his bag later, takes his own life only days before his sick son dies.

Flash forward ten years. A developer has purchased the land upon which the deserted barn sits. The barn is demolished and the mail pouch discovered. The post office decides to complete the delivery of the long delayed mail, an act that garners a great deal of publicity. One of the delayed letters turns out to be a blackmail note intended for one George Radcliffe, a successful businessman with a beautiful home, a bride-to-be daughter, a son about to become a military officer and a loving and faithful wife, Martha. When Martha receives the letter, she opens it and discovers that a blackmailer had intended to put the squeeze on George ten years earlier for a robbery and murder at his workplace. At the trial, George had positively another employee as the guilty party, a man who was sentenced to life in prison because of George's testimony. Could George have lied on the stand, committed the murder himself and stolen the money? How else to explain his coming into a great deal of money ten years ago?

Martha refuses to believe that George could be guilty of such a heinous crime but as she starts to pick at various threads, the carefully woven fabric of their tranquil and blissful suburban life begin to unravel. More and more, the evidence points towards George as the real killer. What will Martha do? Is George really the bad guy she has come to believe?

I won't spoil the ending of this one except to say I wish it had turned out a different way. The story reminded me of Hitchcock's SUSPICION (1941), with Cary Grant playing the is-he-or-isn't-he murderous husband of frightened wife Joan Fontaine. At times, the novel also recalled John D. MacDonald, especially when he peeled back the veneer of comfortable mid-century middle class life to expose the darkness and demons lurking just below the surface.

FIRST TRAIN doesn't quite reach the heights of any given MacDonald novel but it's a solid, well-constructed thriller nonetheless. It would have made a nice little film in the 1950s with, say, Fred MacMurray and Vera Miles in the title roles.

Thumbs up.