Propaganda, Exploitation, and Cult Classics

Over the next week or so, I want to do a short series focusing on a genre of film that has always interested me: the anti-drug propaganda film. The films in this genre are one of two types: educational videos intended to be used in health classrooms that get out of hand with their scare tactics or exploitation films falling into the b-movie category that also use scare tactics to make a horror-type film. Usually, the serious intentions of both types of film belie hilarity to modern audiences, who know better than believe that one puff of pot addicts you to heroin or makes you believe all of your friends have turned into giant spiders that need to be shot with your dad's rifle. It is the humor modern audiences find in these films that have made them rise to cult status.

What is an exploitation film exactly? Well, it is a film designed to exploit a subject, usually something lurid such as sex, drugs, or sociocultural fears (i.e. race, gender roles, etc.). Most of these films are poorly made, sensationalized with advertising and in plot, low budget, have suggestive or explicit subject matter. Though they have been made since the early days of film, the Sixties was the height of exploitation film and pushing boundaries. There are various sub-genres within the exploitation genre itself. Some films are designed to teach or scare the audience into behavior whereas others are just graphic (such as those in the grindhouse or splatter genres).

Exploitation film is a widely explored subject and has gained a considerable cult following, especially as these films became very easy to access on the internet. For a list of some of the most popular exploitation films, you can find this list on Amazon.com. The website brightlightsfilm.com offers various articles on exploitation film, which can be found here, and another focusing especially on drug exploitation films here. More information and interviews with directors and others involved with the making of these films can be found here, by imagesjournal.com. Two great references and guides to what exploitation is and its history can be found here, by filmreference.com, and here, by allmovie.com. Finally, there is even a blog devoted to the exploration and analysis of exploitation film which can be found here at the Exploitation Film blog.

I'm going to profile several films I have seen over the next several days, talking about why they were made, what their message is, and how sometimes the message doesn't always get across to the audience. Since these films started being made, they still remain culturally relevant, propagating and encouraging drug myths, spreading false education and fears, and overall contributing to our current culture and the American War on Drugs. So sit back, chill out, and try to ignore the fact that most of the highschoolers in these movies look to be about thirty.

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.

Aliens, Zombies, and Vampires, Oh my!

Widely considered the worst movie ever made and in one of those so bad it's almost good categories is Ed Wood's masterpiece and perhaps the most famous B-Movie of all time is the classic Plan 9 From Outer Space. This film has everything a horror movie could want: aliens, zombies, vampires, flying saucers, grave robbery, a creepy cemetery and human heros. The problem?

Well, where do we begin?

The film was grossly underfunded and most of the funding it did have came from a Baptist Church in exchange for baptisms of the cast members. Bela Lugosi, one of the stars of the film, died during filming and was replaced by Wood's chiropractor, who was thinner, taller, and had a different accent. The film has a list of goofs longer than the script itself. Most of these goofs are because the budget was so small, the film only took one take to film each scene with no retakes or do-overs. The script, acting, and special effects of the movie really don't seem particularly talented, however. Wood actually earned a posthmous Golden Turkey Award for Worst Director because of this film.

Of course, the awfulness of the film has lead to a strange and unique cult following of its own, leading many people to appreciate the film for its heightened terribleness. In fact, the film currently as 67% in its review on Rotten Tomatoes. The site, badmovies.org does a review of the film, highlighting exactly what is so terrible about it. This article, by Gary Morris, talks about the warped genius of Ed Wood, particularly this film but also about his others. Despite the badness of this film, it still retains a large cult following, especially after the release of Tim Burton's film Ed Wood, and continues to have a significant cultural impact.

For those of you who are particularly brave or just want a good laugh at a horrible film, you can watch Plan 9 here and feel free to tell me what you think.

Not A Pond For Skinny Dipping

Want a movie that has all the elemts of a b-movie, psycho-thriller, suspense, mystery, horror, independent and black and white film? The 1963 horror flick Dementia 13 is a good film for you to watch. The film was the first "mainstream" film written and directed by the legendary Francis Ford Coppola, for those of you who admire his work. It the first film I can't really tell you that this film is bad or good since it is highly subjective. Everyone has their own opinion, but we will get to that later. The film is public domain and can be watched here, but first you might like to know a little more about it.

The film begins with John (William Campbell) and Louise Haloran (Luana Anders) taking a midnight boat ride to the sound of an upbeat rockability song on the transistor radio. Just as he is telling her that if he dies before his mother (Eithne Dunne), Louise will inherit nothing, he has a heart attack in their boat without his pills to help him through the incident. She disposes of the body and intends to travel to his mother's gloomy Irish castle to convince her to change the will, not letting the family know that her husband's body is in a lake somewhere. Louise goes "in place" of her husband for the memorial service of a mysterious person known as Kathleen (Barbara Dowling). Louise finds out that Kathleen is her husband's baby sister who died in a weird drowning accident back in Ireland, which the family still keeps shrouded in mystery. When she arrives there, Louise discovers that her late husband's family is a lot stranger than she counted on and is keeping some terrible secrets.And whatever you do, stay away from that pond.

The film is widely considered a b-movie, especially being produced by Roger Corman who was a famous b-filmmaker. Opinions are pretty much split on the movie. Some love it, some hate it, and others really can't make up their mind. Coppola fans say this early film gives insight into his future works. Slasher film fans say this film is a natural ancestor to the subgenre. Hitchcock fans say that this film is a blatant rip-off of Psycho, from the low-budget style to the black and white to the script. The best way to figure out what is true is to watch the film for yourself, but some reviews might also be helpful.

As I said, a lot of Hitchcock fans believe the film is a Psycho wannabe, such as the review here. Classic-horror.com did a sort of mixed review here, which might be helpful to some. There are some who believe the film is a waste of time, like those at 100misspenthours.com, whose review is here. Contemporary critics universally panned the film, but it is gained considerable cult popularity over the years. Also, the message board at IMDB for the film is a good place to get info on the film.

This is a very dark film and since it is an ancestor of slasher films, there is a good deal of blood and violence. There are tons of twists, turns, and creep outs, but its all worth it for a good scare.

"It's the end of the world..."

My introduction to Hitchcock came around middle school and the first movie of his I watched, with my parents in the room, was The Birds. I later read the short story in one of my English classes, and though the story was scary, the image of Hitch's film was what struck the most fear into me. Like Rebecca, it is based on the writing of Daphne du Maurier, though The Birds is a short story, which those of you who are interested can read here in its entirety. To this day, I cannot see large groups of birds together without wondering if they are plotting something. As you can imagine, the migration season is horrible on my nerves.

The begins in San Francisco where beautiful blonde socialite Melanie Daniels, played by Tippi Hedren, who meets the handsome Mitch Brenner, played by Rod Taylor, in a bird shop. The two grow more interested in each other all the while, the birds around them seem to be up to something. When Melanie arrives in Mitch's peaceful seaside town on the Pacific Coast, their meeting is interrupted when she is attacked by sea gulls. Melanie meets Mitch's family, consisting of his sister Cathy (Veronica Cartwright) and his mother Lydia (Jessica Tandy). She also discovers Mitch's past lover affair with Cathy's school teacher Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette). As these relationships progress, the bird attacks become more serious and deadly until it comes to the point the birds seem to be bringing forth the apocalypse and taking over the world.

I admit, it is a little unbelievable to think of the world descending into a chaotic swarm of feathers and talons, but Hitch takes it in a way that makes it not only completely believable but downright frightening. Again, there are several Hitchcock trademarks in the film, such as the use of multiple shots from many angles to create feels of chaos and loss of control. Color is used in this film, though most people associate Hitch with more black and white films. The color green is also used prominently throughout the course of the film, including the same green suit Tippi is wearing in every shot of the film. The film also has no musical score to it.

The town of Bodega Bay has features on the filming of the movie in the town where the movie is set, which you can read here. The website filminamerica.com has great resources for you to find the locations of the film and explore them for yourself, which you can see here. Though Hitchcock enjoyed shooting in the studio more than on location, a lot of the location shots are still there and many people like to go visit them, on a sort of creepy Hitchcock/Birds Tour, if you will. The TCM blog Movie Morlocks has also

done this article on the trailers for the film.

The Birds is an essential film for any horror, suspense, thriller, Hitchcock, or just movie buff in general.

Plan Your Own Night of Fright

Want to plan your own classic horror movie marathon and don't know where to start? I've found a few good resources you can use to set up your scary movie night and ensure that everyone leaves with a good fright. Each of these websites helps rate and discuss horror movies so you can plan which films are the ones for you.

At lovetoknow.com they have a constant rating systems of all of the best horror movies, new and old, which you can find here. They have the title, a very brief summary and an explanation as to why this is the "best" film in the genre. The list is pretty short, but its a great place to begin when looking for what type of film you want to show.

One of my favorite sites, film-site.org, also has a good introduction to classic horror films. Here under their little intro to what makes a horror film, you can find a list of the best horror movies of the early days. This page on the gives you a brief history of the beginnings of horror film, showing you some of the best and well-known horror films as well as some of the best but not so well known ones.

Don't want your movie marathon to show some classics? Want to have a more original style? Well, here are a list of some good sites for your B Horror Movie Marathon. First and foremost, I would go to B-Horror.com and use all of the links they have. I've found another page here with a list of some great b-horror movies from the Fifties and Sixties. A site where you can learn about and preview the B's is at bmovies.com. And here is a forum that might be helpful where people have come online to discuss their favorite B's and what would make a good horror marathon. 

The site best-horror-movies.com does just that. Here is there homepage and from that you can access tons of lists, databases and resources to find the cream of the crop where horror films are concerned. There is a list for everyone who wants to watch a scary movie here, from gift shops, to video rentals, to zombies to DVD purchases. Just about anything and everything can be found on this site.

The site classicmovies.com has done a list of the scariest movies for Halloween that you can access here. The movies are listed alphabetically with links to the analysis, synopsis and reviews of the movies themselves. This is the perfect site for planning your classic horror movie night.

Perhaps the best of the best, you can go onto the American Film Institute's website and get their list of 100 YEARS...100 THRILLS for the Institute's top picks of horror movies. These films were picked by the actors, directors, critics, and film experts who spent long hard hours voting and analyzing each film. So, if you're an academic or just want the tough stuff done for you, I would really recommend using the films from this list.

For those of you who want a humorous, modern look at film, I would recommend looking through the annals of slashfilm.com. The horror section of their site, which you can find here, allows you to leaf through the past blog entries on their site. They have updates on upcoming horror films, trailers, articles on past films, reviews, and so many good resources for those of you who want a more recent approach to horror. 

I hope I've been helpful in your quest to put together the perfect night of fright for this Halloween. 

Poster Design: The Art of Horror

Before you go into a movie theatre, what is usually the first thing you see as you go in? The movie posters lining the walls, which are supposed to attract you inside, of course. In today's world, computers have made graphic design such an easy task, but before you could make art with a few clicks of a mouse, most of these posters were hand-drawn, completely created by the designers from scratch to make beautiful works of art. Since horror is the topic of the month, I'm going to focus on two horror artists in particular: Reynold Brown and Saul Bass.

Saul Bass is probably most famous for the designing of several Hitchcock movie posters including Vertigo, North by Northwest, and Psycho. He also worked on two drama posters for The Man with the Golden Arm and Anatomy of a Murder. Bass did some famous non-horror posters as well, such as the ones for Carmen Jones, Around the World in Eighty Days, The Seven Year Itch and The Big Country. Bass's career spanned forty years and in addition to posters, he also did film title sequences and company logos. Bass worked for such legendary directors as Hitchcock, Kubrick, Sorcsese and Preminger. His posters all have a unique style to them.

Another famous artist who did several horror posters is Reynold Brown. Brown's posters were wide range from different genres, ages, and success levels. Many of his beautifully done posters are b-movies, though the posters themselves are Grade A. His posters include ones done for Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Incredible Shrinking Man, Pit and the Pendulum, House on Haunted Hill, Tarantula, I Was A Teenage Werewolf, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, and The Time Machine. Some of his famous non-horror posters include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Spartacus, Ben-Hur, King of Kinds, How the West Was Won, Mutiny on the Bounty, and The Alamo.

In the past few decades, collecting vintage film memorabilia, especially these posters, has become an incredibly competitive commercial market. Many such

posters are extremely rare and it is common for people to screen printer illegal or unlicensed copies of them to sell. To date, the most expensive movie poster sold on record was the one made for Fritz Lang's Metropolis, which sold to a collector for $690,000. Serious collectors are willing to drop some major cash in order to add to their collection, but that doesn't mean you can't see these beautiful works of art for yourself.

I have found several websites that have excellent online galleries and stores for you to buy posters (both actual and replicas), if any of you are interested. Cinemacom.com has a wonderful collection of beautiful posters that you can view for free in their online galleries.

Cinemasterpieces.com buys, sells, and auctions posters, but you can look at them online for free. The site Hammerhorrorposters.com has several horror posters for you to view, histories of the posters, and is a great resource if you want to know more about the posters or collecting them. Movie posters even have their own awards, the Key Art Awards sponsored by The Hollywood Reporter on the internet is the Internet Movie Poster Awards (IMP Awards) and here you can view several award nominated and revered poster artists.

Portrait of a Mama's Boy: Norman Bates

One of the essential Hitchcock films is the frightening psychological thriller Psycho. The film itself is extremely iconic and everyone, even those who have not seen the film, know the suspense and terror connected to Janet Leigh's famous shower scene. I watched the movie this evening on Turner Classic Movies, and even almost fifty years after the film was initially released, Psycho is still as terrifying as ever.

The film is almost two stories in one. At the beginning, secretary Marion Crane (Leigh) wants nothing more than to marry out-of-town secret boyfriend Sam Loomis (John Gavin). When her boss gives her $40,000 to put in the bank, Marion battles with her conscience and finally decides to leave with the money and join Sam so they can start their life together. Suddenly, Marion gets the feeling that she is being followed, that the her boss has turned her in and the police are on her tale. She buys a new car to throw them off her track and then, after a raining night of driving on the highway, Marion finds herself at the out of the way Bates Motel. There she meets the shy Norman (Anthony Perkins), a strange young man with an interesting relationship with his mother. There the film diverges and we are plunged into following the crimes of a deeply disturbed murderer.

Hitch's last black and white film, Psycho was shot so because black and white was inexpensive and blood looks more gory in color. Hitchcock used a variety of camera angles, lighting effects, and shifts to create the eerie atmosphere in Psycho. In order to make his audience feel like voyeurs, a 50 mm lens was used on a 33 mm camera to give it the same appearance as looking through a person's eyes. Hitch is also famous for using tons of different angles and shots to make one scene. The shower scene alone uses somewhere between 70 and 90 different shots spliced together to make the same scene, a scene lasting only 45 seconds. Another little bit of trivia, this is the first movie to have a scene where the audience actually sees a flushing toilet.

The film was #1 on AFI's 100 Thrills list and #14 on the 100 Movies. The quote "A boy's best friend is his mother" was ranked #56 on AFI's top movie quotes. Of course, this film does have those who dislike in. In fact, Walt Disney would never allow Hitch to make a film for him or use any sets at Disneyland because Hitch was the one who made "that disgusting movie" Psycho.

Still, Psycho remains incredibly popular with audiences to this day. For those of you who want to know more about the movie, you can get some more information from these sites. Filmsite.org has a great analysis and review of the movie you can read here. Another website, House of Horrors, offers up a great analysis, review, and some fun and behind the scenes facts about the movie any film buff would be interested in, which you can find here. For those of you who love this movie so much you want to memorize every word, here you can find online a complete transcript of the entire movie. Psycho is a movie that will terrify but it might also become one of your new favorites. I highly recommend watching it, with the lights on of course.

Intergalactic Goo Takes Over the World

After watching The Haunting, I think you're going to need a horror film that isn't exactly horrifying. One of the first handful in the independent film tradition, a celebrated B-movie, a drive-in movie favorite and starring the illustrious Steve McQueen, just about everyone has heard of or seen a parody of The Blob. I couldn't find a full version on the internet that would play for me, but a YouTube user has split the film into parts, if you want to watch that here.

The Blob has a somewhat unbelievable plot, though you must take into consideration, it is the mother of all Fifties drive-in horror films. The Blob itself an a weird goo-like substance that is transported to earth during a meteor crash to a small town in Pennsylvania. The old man, who's property the Blob landed on, goes out to investigate and is soon attacked by the Blob. The man, in fear, runs and is nearly hit by two teenagers out on a date. He begs them to take him to the local doctor. The doctor discovers that the Blob slowly absorbs all humans it comes in contact with, only to be eaten himself. The blob then goes on a horrific path of trying to eat every person in sight, growing larger and larger as it does. It is up to the teenagers to save the world from the Blob's gluttonous conquest of Earth.

So, yes, not really an Oscar contender here. It's not the best film I've ever seen, not the worst. It's really a toss up to individual taste whether you will regard this one as a horror movie or a comedy. Most tend to put it into the latter category, even those who saw it when it was first released. This is a movie made for the times when the Cold War was brewing, Sputnik was in the air, and everyone was a little worried about what might be "out there" in the universe. Still, it has a lot to say to modern audiences.

Just some quick and random facts about a movie that is frighteningly funny to me personally. The old man in the first few sequences is played by legendary film actor Olin Howland, a name not many may recognize. Howland's film career covered over 200 movies, going all the way back to the days of silent film. The Blob was his last picture. The Blob has developed a cult following and is widely considered a cult movie nowadays. The film has its own website, which you can access here and several sequels and remakes of the film have been made. Horror collector Wes Shank owns the rights to the film and you can read an interview with him about it here. The swinging theme song to the movie was written by Burt Bacharach and Mack David and you can listen to it here, courtesy of kingtet.com, who have posted it for free to listen to. Don't just give it a few seconds listen either. If you listen long enough, you get to hear the lyrics!

The Blob is a classic movie, though what type of classic is perhaps yet to be determined. Still, people have been enjoying this film for fifty years now and that proves that it is capable of standing the test of time.

"The dead are not quiet in Hill House..."

To date, one of the scariest films I have ever seen and perhaps the best psychological thriller or "ghost movie" ever made is the 1963 version of The Haunting. The film was based on the novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson and was recently remade in 1999, but the 1963 version is better by far. The film itself uses spectacular effects with light, shadow, and mind tricks that make you wonder if you yourself are going insane or if you're just watching other people do so. Director Robert Wise did a magnificent job with this film and it really stands the test of time.

The plot rundown is somewhat basic, but still works. Dr. Markway, played by Richard Johnson, is a paranormal investigator who is trying to prove the existence of spirits and the supernatural by spending the night in a mansion with a history of driving people mad or leading them to cruel and unusual deaths. Accompanying him on this ghoulish sleepover is the heir to the house Luke Sanderson, played by Russ Tamblyn, a mysterious clairvoyant named Theodora, played by Claire Bloom, and an insecure, meek, and lonely Eleanor "Nell" Lance, played by Julie Harris. Nell has strange psychological abilities that give her a close connection with whatever spirits inhabit the house.

Everything starts out simply enough. Hill House has all the ingredients for a spooky haunted house: angry ghosts, creepy house and groundskeepers, people poking their heads the business of supernatural entities that would rather remain undisturbed, screaming, and of course some good old-fashioned psychological terrorism. As the night wears on, the group realizes that the house is much worse than they expected. The house, in fact, seems to come alive, awakened by their presence in it. At one point, Dr. Markway goes so far as to state: "It was an evil house from the beginning - a house that was born bad". Soon it becomes apparent to the group that there is a good chance they will not live through the night.

Typical horror films of today rely on blood and gore to get across their message of terror, but not this film. In The Haunting, not a single drop of blood is shed. The frighteningly unsettling special effects use camera angles, lighting and music to scare the hell out of the audience. This is yet another film that proves you don't need fancy effects or tons of blood and gore to leave your audience unable to sleep with the lights off. Unfortunately, you're going to have to locate a copy of this movie on your own since its not on the internet. However, you can watch a trailer for it from Turner Classic Movies here if you want.

So, if you want to addle your brain a little bit with a movie that will make you afraid of your own shadow, check out The Haunting.

48 Hours of Horror on TCM

Turner Classic Movies has some big plans to make this Halloween even scarier.They are doing a "48 Hours of Horror" special movie marathon on Thursday, October 30 and Friday, October 31. This marathon includes a collection of horror anthologie as well as movies based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft. You can find the schedule for the 30th here and the one for the 31st here, so you can better plan which films you want to watch and see what is on the list for those days. The TCM site also allows you to send reminders to yourself that these movies will be on and when.

Additionally, TCM is keeping you updated with their own blog. From October 25 to 31, the TCM blog Movie Morlocks, will be blogging about their favorite horror movies and why they enjoy these movies so much. The blog-a-thon will touch on several different movies and topics about old horror films and their significance. I hope you will take advantage of these great resources.

"I saw what I saw when I saw it..."

What do Bud Abbott, Groucho Marx, Rex Reed, and Mahatma Ghandi all have in common? It could be a joke, given today's topic but it isn't. All four of these great men were born on October 2, and in a belated celebration of Bud Abbott in particular, I am going to talk about a few of the wonderful horror and mystery parodies that Bud and his partner, Lou Costello did. Before Scary Movie and all of the other modern parody films, Bud and Lou were using a mix of satire, parody, comedy, slapstick, straight man/funny man, and over all hijinks to create tons of classic movies, all of which remain hilarious to this day.

Perhaps the first purveyors of horror parody, Bud and Lou came out with such gems as Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Abbot and Costello Meet the Mummy, Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man, Africa Screams, Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Who Done It?, and Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a list of films longer than that of some modern Hollywood A-listers, yet only a portion of the Abbott and Costello films. Bud and Lou took their routine into the backdrops of these frightening horror films, using many of the actual cast members from the real movies themselves.

In Meet Frankenstein, they meet Lon Chaney, Jr. as the Wolf Man, Bela Lugosi as Dracula, and Glenn Strange as Frankenstein's monster. In Meet the Killer, they team up with a frightening Boris Karloff and do so again when he plays the other lead role in Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The films Meet the Mummy and Meet the Invisible Man do not use actual actors from the film, though some original footage is used in Meet The Invisible Man. These two films are strictly parodies of the originals. Africa Screams could easily be a King Kong parody, but instead has Bud and Lou mining for diamonds and encounter lions, headhunters, and giant apes. Who Done It? is a radio mystery near scary movie where Bud and Lou have to solve the murder committed at the station they hope to work at in a climatic, almost Hitchcock style ending filled with drama and suspense.

To me personally, Bud and Lou are the end-all, be-all of comedic teams. I love all of their films, but since it is Fright Fest and all, I can only focus on these select horror films. Somehow, they manage to make these films frightening and at the same time, laugh your pants of funny, which is a difficult thing for any film to do. Comedy and horror are genres that never really seem to exist, except when something is so horrible its funny or so funny its horrifying. These films I mentioned manage to cross genre lines and at the same time, be excellent examples of film. I could probably do an entire blog on the comedy of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, but I will limit myself to this one post for the time being.

Those of you who want to know more about Bud and Lou or are big fans yourself can check out the excellent web page their families created here, which totes itself as helping "Abbot and Costello Meet the Internet". The movie Africa Screams is public domain and can be watched here. The other films you will have to track down yourself. And just because, here is the entire "Who's On First Routine", since I cannot mention Bud and Lou without thinking of the routine of theirs that everyone recognizes.