MY FAMOUS MONSTERS 40

Forry phones it in for the cover of FAMOUS MONSTERS #89 with a lackluster still from an equally lackluster film, DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN (in which FJA has a cameo appearance). Other features include the Graveyard Examiner, previews of new monster movies and the always popular more photos, more stories, more features. 

THE FOG

I saw John Carpenter's THE FOG (1980) when it was first released. The film played in Austin at the old (and not missed)  Northcross Six which was one of the worst movie theaters in town for a long time. The poster above is somewhat misleading as it depicts "scream queen" Jamie Lee Curtis as the star of the film when in reality, she's part of an ensemble cast that includes Adrienne Barbeau (Carpenter's wife), Hal Holbrook, John Houseman (for about two minutes of screen time) and Curtis's real-life mother, Janet Leigh.

I thought at the time that THE FOG was one of the best E.C. Comics influenced films I'd ever seen. I watched the film again this afternoon and that assessment still holds up. THE FOG was Carpenter's fourth film as a director, following DARK STAR (1974), ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 (1976),  and the blockbuster, genre-defining HALLOWEEN (1978). THE FOG is a simple, classic ghost story involving the murderous spirits of dead sailors who come back to exact their revenge on the town that killed them one-hundred years earlier.

 It's amazing what Carpenter is able to achieve with fog machines and well placed lights. The ghosts are kept to the shadows and appear mostly as sinister silhouettes with glowing red eyes. As I said, if you've ever read an E.C. horror comic book, you're familiar with the trope of rotting corpses returned from the dead to punish their killers.

The cast is good, the location photography is lovely and Carpenter's direction is assured. THE FOG isn't a great film and it's not Carpenter's best work but it's a very good, solid little piece of genre film making that I enjoyed watching this afternoon just as much as I did thirty-three years ago.

By the way, I had the honor of meeting Janet Leigh at a monster movie convention in Washington, D.C. in 2000. I bought a copy of her book about the making of PSYCHO and had her sign it for me. She was an incredibly petite but extremely gracious lady and it was a genuine thrill to meet her.

MY FAMOUS MONSTERS 39

Waste not, want not are the by-words for FAMOUS MONSTERS #87 which recycles both an article and a cover image of THE SHE-CREATURE from a mid-'60s issue of MONSTER WORLD. There's also a photo-film book of CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (also a reprint), Monster Comics and a preview of THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES. 

STRINGS FOR A VAMPIRE

Just to set the record straight, not all of my experiences with classic films and live music on the UT campus were as bad as that PHANTOM OF THE OPERA debacle I wrote about in my previous post. In fact, I had one of the greatest experiences of my movie-going life on the University of Texas campus back in 2000.

The date was November 5th (I know because Judy framed the ticket and promotional postcard for me, a treasured memento which sits proudly on my desk here at home). The event was a screening of the original 1931 DRACULA, the film that made Bela Lugosi immortal.

I'd seen the film many times over the years but never like this. Those of you who have seen the movie will recall that there is no musical score to the film. Other than some cues from SWAN LAKE, which are played under the opening credits, the film does not have an original musical score. Nor does the 1931 FRANKENSTEIN. Both of these films were early sound productions, just barely out of the silent era and the sound quality of both has never been very good. I don't know that the absence of music helps or hurts the films. After all, that's just the way they are. But in 2000, music was added to DRACULA in a very unique way.

Composer Philip Glass wrote an original musical score for DRACULA in 2000 and he and the Kronos Quartet toured the country performing the music live on stage behind the movie screen while the film was projected. Judy and I had the honor of being there at the Bass Concert Hall to see this once-in-a-lifetime experience. DRACULA has always been one of my all-time favorite horror films and to see it presented this way with an appropriately moody, atmospheric and haunting live accompaniment was a real treat. I later purchased both the CD "soundtrack" and the DVD of DRACULA which features the score as an alternate audio track.

This magnificent performance of film and music did much to purge the bad taste left by the PHANTOM abomination. I loved every minute of it.

SHOOT THE ORGAN PLAYER...PLEASE (WITH APOLOGIES TO FRANCOIS TRUFFAUT)

A long-standing Halloween tradition on the University of Texas campus was the annual autumnal screening of the legendary silent horror film THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925). This Universal Studios production was a mammoth undertaking sporting immense sets, Norman Kerry, Mary Philbin  and, as the poster pictured here says, a cast of 5000 others. Oh, and one other very important player.

The great Lon Chaney starred as Erik, the haunted Phantom of the Paris Opera House in a role that brought the supremely talented Chaney his greatest measure of cinematic immortality. Chaney's performance is full of both menace and pathos and the unmasking scene in which Erik's true face is revealed remains one of the single greatest moments in the cinema of the fantastic. Chaney's make-up creation is nothing short of incredible and his skull-faced visage still retains the power to shock and disturb.

My father used to tell  me about the time he and his brother went to see THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA as a first-run film in a movie palace in downtown Cleveland, Ohio (he grew up in Euclid, just outside of Cleveland). He told me that the moment when Mary Philbin ripped the mask off of Chaney to reveal his face was the scariest thing he had ever seen. According to him, he and his brother literally got under their seats and remained there until the movie was over. That was a mistake because by the time the film was over, night had fallen and they had to walk home in the dark, both of them terrified out of their wits by what they had just seen.

At least, that's the story he told me before he died in 1965. I have no way to confirm this tale but it has the ring of veracity to it and it's a story told by a father to a son that I cherish and one that I will believe to my dying day.

I grew up knowing about THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA thanks to my dad and Forry Ackerman. I read about the film in the pages of FAMOUS MONSTERS and I bought and built the Aurora plastic model kit of the Phantom. I saw the Hammer Studios version of PHANTOM starring the great Herbert Lom but I went for many, many years without seeing the Chaney version.

Several years ago, Judy and I attended the annual Halloween screening of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA on the UT campus. The film was shown in the Bass Recital Hall which is home to an enormous pipe organ. The screening of the film was accompanied by an organist playing the huge instrument. What could be better than a classic silent horror film with live musical accompaniment?

What could be worse was the fact that the print of the film was in horrible condition. It was full of splices and badly scratched and looked as if it had been roller skated upon. This was definitely not a restored print. It was a cheap 16mm version that had been around for who knows how many years and was probably the same one UT rented and showed every year.

To make matters worse, the organist didn't play music that was written for the film, nor did he play music that was appropriate to the film. Instead, he "mickey moused" it up, playing cute little "funny" cues, tunes and themes. When something that modern day audiences might find amusing happened on the screen, he underscored the action with music that encouraged people to laugh at how silly those old time silent movie actors looked and acted.

In short, it was an absolute abomination. The trouble is, Judy and I were probably the only people in the concert hall that were appalled by the desecration of the film. The audience roared with laughter and everyone seemed to enjoy this delightfully "camp" experience. Not us, especially not me.

I would have dearly loved to have seen a pristine fully restored (with hand-tinted color sequences) print of PHANTOM with either an organist or full orchestra playing the original film score or something that was much more in keeping with the times in which the film was made. What I got was one of the most unpleasant movie-going experiences I've ever had.

 Come to think of it, my dad and his brother had the right idea.

 I should have gotten under my seat.

And stayed there.

MY FAMOUS MONSTERS 38

I've gotta confess, I'm not impressed by the cover of FAMOUS MONSTERS #84. Sure, it's a cool color photo of Christopher Lee, blood-shot eyes and blood-stained fangs and all, but that's all it is. A color photo. There's no fabulous Basil Gogos artwork, no cover copy to let us know what's inside this issue, no nothing. It's a very generic cover image that could be found on any monster magazine.

Of course, I bought it when it came out and I still have it in my collection. My best guess is that perhaps both Forry and publisher James Warren were up against an impending publication deadline and they had to throw something together at the very last minute. Can any readers confirm or deny my theory? Let me know.

SUPERHEROES: THE NEVER-ENDING BATTLE

 I just finished watching all three hours of SUPERHEROES: THE NEVER-ENDING BATTLE, the new documentary that ran on PBS earlier this week.

At the risk of sounding like a know-it-all, I didn't learn anything that I didn't already know. After all, I've been reading comic books (and books about comic books) for more than fifty years. That said, the show gets my highest recommendation. It takes on a huge subject and does so in commendable style with great production values, terrific graphics and a veritable "who's-who" of "talking heads" including important comic book artists, writers, scholars, publishers, editors, actors, actresses and more.

The show hits all of the high-points in the development of the superhero comic book but because of the fact that it's produced and aimed at a more general audience, there are many things that are left out. I understand that and that's fine. If you go off into the weeds too deeply you'll lose the audience.

I do however wish that there had been more about Jack Kirby. The material that's there (including one talking head appearance by Mark Evanier) is good but I would have liked to have seen more. At some point, someone (I forget who) does say that in the history of comic book artists, there's art before Jack Kirby and there's art after Jack Kirby, a sentiment with which I wholeheartedly agree.

It was nice to see Joe Kubert, Carmine Infantino and Jerry Robinson all appear on camera. All three men have passed away within the last year and a half and it's still a shock to realize that they're gone.

One thing that struck me watching the program is that Lynda Carter is still breathtakingly beautiful and if the powers-that-be ever green light a Wonder Woman film, Carter should get the first phone call asking her to play Hippolyta, Diana's mother and queen of the Amazons. It was also nice to see the legendary Adam West, which reminded me that I need to post my Adam West story here sometime soon.
A lot of very colorful and important history is covered in three hours and if you're a comic book fan, you'll love SUPERHEROES: THE NEVER-ENDING BATTLE. If you're not, you'll still enjoy it because, as the program states, even people who have never read a comic book now know who most of these characters are thanks mainly to television, films and merchandising.