" Say, do you know what in means to get The Ding?"

Another Dwain Esper and Hildegarde Stadie collaboration and production, the 1933 film Narcotic explores various drugs, mainly opium, marijuana, and heroin. Like their film Maniac, sometimes styled as Sex Maniac, this film is also based on the short story "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allen Poe. This exploitation film has just about all the ingredients for an early b-movie: drugs, sex, a crazy husband/wife director/writer duo, less than stellar acting, stock footage that doesn't exactly fit in, bodysnatching, a mad scientist, silly Jazz Age lingo, very politically incorrect racial and ethinic stereotyping, as well as a lost of misinformation meant to scare the audience into good behavior. This, like is other film's, do not measure up to Esper's masterpiece of Reefer Madness, but it is films like Narcotic and Marihuana that earned him the title of "The Father of Exploitation Films". For those of you that want, a grainy but public domain version of Narcotic can be viewed here.

The film begins with a Frankenstein-esque opening scene where Dr. William G. Davis (Harry Cording) ordering his assistant to get the necessary ingredients to help create his life serum. Davis was once a promising medical student, but a life of drugs and sordid dealings led him into the snake oil business. His downfall begins after a heroic act leads him to crave opium. He goes to an opium den in, where else, Chinatown, which is run by Gee Wu (played by the not Asian J. Stuart Blackton Jr.) and ends up hooked for life after one night. Davis's wife (Joan Dix) tries to help him, but to no avail. Slowly, Davis's fast, drug-addicted friends and their hard partying ways lead him to become a shadow of his former self and a victim of drug addiction.

I've compiled a list of resources for those of you who want more information, insight, and analysis of this movie. First and foremost, you can explore the various categories about the movie on the page created for it by Turner Classic Movies, which you can find here. Allmovie.com does a brief synopsis and background of the movie, which can be read here. Mondodigital.com goes more in depth into the background and analysis as written here. Just like Esper's other films, this one provides a lot of misinformation, laughs, and self-parody.

Vincent Price Double Feature: Part Two

The second part of my Vincent Price Double Feature, is the second in the series of films Roger Corman and Vincent Price made in their series of films based on the works of Edgar Allen Poe. The Pit and the Pendelum was made in response to the widespread success of The Fall of the House of Usher and grossed even more than the previous film had. Those of you who are true Edgar Allen Poe fans will come to realize that this film version really has nothing in common with the original story, which can be read here. However, it truly is a remarkable film and a fitting sequel to House of Usher.

The story begins when Englishman Francis Barnard (John Kerr) comes to a castle in Spain, owned by his brother-in-law Nicholas Medina (Vincent Price). It was here that Francis's sister Elizabeth (scream queen Barbara Steele) died under mysterious circumstances and Francis blames Nicholas for his sister's death. In residence of the castle is currently Nicholas's sister Catherine (Luana Anders) who is worried for her brother's crazy behavior after the loss of his beloved wife. A frequent visitor is friend Doctor Leon (Anthony Carbone) who pronounced Elizabeth Medina dead. It is revealed that Nicholas and Catherine's father Sebastian Medina was in fact a torturer during the Spanish Inquisition and killed his own wife and brother for adultery against him. It seems that Elizabeth is still alive and her spirit is haunting the house. Those staying in it must find out what is causing Elizabeth's reappearance after her death. A few twists at the end provide for a wonderful climax.

Again, color is very prominent in this film and you can see the beginning of Sixties experimentation in film through the colorful flashback sequences in this film. A 40 mm wide angle lens was used to make the sets look larger than normal because they budget was too low to afford very elaborate sets. Another low budget trick was using 20 gallons of fake spiderwebs to create an eerie atmosphere throughout the castle set. The shots of the sea near which the castle is supposed to be located are actually shots of the Palos Verdes coast in the South Bay near Los Angeles. To make the movement of the pendulum even more horrifying, Corman took out every second shot to make it look as though the pendulum was moving twice as fast.

This film is even better than the previous one, though the two of them are obviously connected. Price is at the top of his game in the genre he does so well. Themes of alive entombment, torture, and madness abound in this film as well, but work in a completely different way as in the previous. Want a second opinion? Excellent source for this genre, the blog Horror Movie a Day has also reviewed this film and talked about it in depth, which you can read here. I really recommend that you watch not only this film but also the rest of Roger Corman's Poe films, which will surely give you a night of fright.

Vincent Price Double Feature: Part One

A copy of MGM Midnite Movies came into my possession recently, a double feature of two Vincent Price movies. I plan to talk about both, but in this post I want to focus on the first of the movies, The House of Usher. Price is perhaps best known for his terrifying feature films based on the works of revered American literary genius Edgar Allan Poe. It was Poe who wrote stories of mystery, the macabre, was involved in the Romantic literary movement and pioneered the short story, detective-fiction, and science-fiction genres. The frightening natures of these stories are brought fully into life by King of Horror Vincent Price in these many films. The House of Usher was the first of eight films directed by Roger Corman based around Poe works, many of which star Vincent Price.

The story Poe wrote was changed up a lot for the film. The film version follows the path of wealthy Bostonian Philip Winthrop (Mark Damon) who comes to visit his fiancée, Madeline Usher (Myrna Fahey). When he arrives, the butler (Harry Ellerbe) does not wish to let him into the house, but Philip persuades his way in and then encounters the extremely sensitive to noise, light, and sound Roderick Usher (Vincent Price), older brother and ward of his beloved. Roderick tells him Madeline is ill, though she seems perfectly fine to Philip. Roderick begins to warn Philip of the horrible history of their family and the curse that lays over the house. Philip thinks it is all in Roderick's head, until he discovers that Roderick is not the only thing who is possessed.

For a low budget, early Sixties horror film, the effects are pretty decent. The use of color in the film is remarkable. The color red is extremely noticeable and focused on for dramatic effect but several monochromatic scenes throughout also help create a sense of eeriness and fear. Corman usually directed B-movie black and white double features, but he was allowed to film this movie and consequently others in color and CinemaScope.

This film and the other Poe/Price/Corman collaborations have gained considerable cult status, especially among horror fans. A review on eccentric-cinema.com praises how well the film was made with such a low budget. Another review and analysis can be found here, thanks to classic-horror.com. I do highly recommend watching not only this film but the other ones in Corman's Poe series. And stay tuned. The second part of this double feature is coming up soon.

Fright Fest Begins

The month of October is upon us and this month I have decided to celebrate some of the shocks, screams, thrills, and chills Old Hollywood had to offer. From the terrifying long nails of Nosferatu to the hair-tingling transformation of Lon Chaney, Jr. into The Wolfman to The Master of Suspense himself, Alfred Hitchcock, Hollywood had us on the edge of our seats with fright and anticipation.

Unlike the horror movies of today, which rely more on straightforward gore, violence, and sexuality to draw in viewers to the box office, this movies relied more on suspense, drama, and a creation of a frightening realm through makeup, costuming, scenery, and spectacular acting to keep audiences paralyzed with fear. Though many see these films as outdated and their horror not quite as petrifying as the modern films that push all the limits and sometimes manage to desensitize us to the truly horrible, many are still relevant and still relevantly spooky if you watch them at the right time of night with the lights off. I dare you to stay up late and watch one of the old movies where Vincent Price interprets the works of Edgar Allan Poe then have pleasant dreams that night.

Of course, there are some films whose once innovative and frightening special effects now emit laughter and certain films that missed the mark, becoming more horrible than horrifying. Still, we need to explore what it was that once made these movies so terrifying to audiences, what about audiences have changed, and the major innovations these first frightening films made that allowed for modern advancement in the movies. I like to think that even the bad films did some good, even if the only good is giving us something to laugh at.

So I invite you, if you dare, to join me this month in celebrating what is scary and what is scarily funny about Old Hollywood. Who knows? We might all get a good scream out of it.