Rondo Hatton was born with a genetic condition, that of acromegaly which affects the pituitary gland (not the last actor to be afflicted – Richard Kiel – most famous as ‘Jaws’ in two James Bond films – is also a sufferer). Hatton’s looks were altered later in his life, indeed stories tell of him being voted ‘most handsome’ whilst at school, though it is more likely this was fabricated to heighten his tragedy (as if he needed it). His condition caused a distortion of his face, head, hands, feet and more worryingly, the heart, as he approached his twenties, becoming more accentuated as years went by.  It has been much asserted that Hatton’s condition was brought on by mustard gassing whilst he fought during World War I – whilst possible, his future employers in the film world would seize upon this potential cause and use it to further highlight their actor’s plight.

Hatton was an intelligent man – after the war and the onset of his illness, he worked as a reporter in Tampa, Florida where he was eventually spotted and invited over to Hollywood to act, his face even at this early stage grabbing attention (it had already allegedly cost him his marriage upon his return home from the War). Though reluctant to be traipsed in front of a huge audience when already name-calling – his nickname was ‘Monster Man’ – and sideways glances were an everyday event, the doctors had suggested a warmer climate may help – no small consideration – the acromegaly wasn’t just a visual effect, Hatton himself described the pain as ‘a migraine throughout my body’. However, the was never a rags to riches nor ashes to phoenix story – Hatton’s career in film is slight, having only two lead roles,  House of Horrors and The Brute Man, which was released after his death, the rest being simple-minded oafs, at best sly and conniving, at worst playing against Charles Laughton in The Hunchback of Notre Dame in an ugliest man competition (Laughton obviously swamped in makeup, Hatton appearing with barely any make-up beyond that needed to blend in with the rest of the scene).

Further operations were necessary to deal with the increasing speed at which his condition attacked his body. His cheekbones were removed completely and replaced with metal. His teeth were replaced at least four times, not enough to stop his lower jaw jutting way beyond his upper, his features now almost a caricature of his past self.  His studio, Universal, pin-pointed Hatton as a potential major player after a string of background parts had caused enough of a stir to prompt such reviews as one from Variety that claimed his appearance ‘came a close second to that of Frankenstein’s Monster’. Universal’s plan was to use Hatton’s face as the vehicle for the horror films they had planned, an undisguised exploitation of his looks to make money.

Hatton’s biggest roles were that of ‘The Creeper’, a recurring role in which he played a shadowy murderer, though the characters were only linked together by name. There is little need for Hatton to act, which is possibly a good thing, every appearance he makes in the movies he made are drenched in shadow, camera angles accentuating his gigantic features. Reviewers, the studio and the public were merciless in their critique of Hatton; he was a real life monster, not just confined to the screen but ‘out there’. To make matters worse, his acting was often ridiculed, critics oblivious to the fact that his condition made it difficult to remember his lines. In one scene in The Brute Man he shakes his head whilst saying ‘yes’, a heart-wrenching faux-pas.

He never lived to see the circus that was waiting for him, his heart giving out before Universal had the chance to break it. We can only guess the effect his employer’s plans would have had on him. It is known that the acromegaly was not only painful but mentally challenging to Hatton, perhaps the best reverse analogy being ‘it is better to have loved once than never to have loved at all’. Universal quickly sold The Brute Man to Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC) for $125,000 for fear that they would be seen to have been exploiting an ill man at his lowest ebb (they were right to be scared). Today Rondo Hatton’s name lives on as an award for contribution to the world of horror cinema.

Daz Lawrence, Horrorpedia

Buy Rondo Hatton poster print from Amazon.com

Pic courtesy of It’s a Mad House

Writer Tim Lucas with one of his well-deserved Rondo Awards

The London Dungeon is a popular London tourist attraction, which recreates various gory and macabre historical events in a gallows humour style aimed at younger audiences. It uses a mixture of live actors, special effects and rides.

Opening in 1974, in Tooley Street, near London Bridge, it was initially designed as a museum of macabre history, but the Dungeon has evolved to become an actor-led, interactive experience. The Dungeon is operated by Merlin Entertainments.

The first segment is set in the pre-18th Century crypt of All Hallows Church, where an actor introduces themselves as the “crypt keeper”. Opening the crypt entrance, visitors are led into the 2nd segement, the “Labyrinth of Lost Souls”, a mirror maze inhabited by a skeleton shaking a metal gate, and a woman in black in a rocking chair.

The third segment is set in 1665 during the Great Plague of London, where the city, scattered with decaying bodies, is depicted as having succumbed to bubonic plague. Visitors meet a “survivor” of the plague, who describes the situation and leads the visitors down a dilapidated street filled with cries of pain, the tolling of bells and calls of “Bring out yer dead!.

The fourth segment is set in the Great Fire of London in 1666, where visitors stand inside a small room themed to the Pudding Lane bakery. A short educational film, previously narrated by Tom Baker and featuring Thomas Farynor (owner of the bakery), explains the events. As the film plays on, smoke effects and smells are piped through the bakery room…

The fifth segment – “Blood & Guts” – takes place within a surgery, where a doctor operates on a stolen dead body: pulling out the intestines, the bladder (which squirts supposed urine at the audience) and the heart. A visitor, chosen at random and normally male, is then “operated” upon. This involved supposedly being trepanned, undergoing bloodletting, and having a hand amputated, during which air jets and water are used.

The Torture Chamber is the most advertised exhibit in the Dungeon. The torturer line up the ‘prisoners’ against a wall and picks out a visitor (usually male). The visitor is strapped in to a chair surrounded by torture devices, such as a red-hot tongue puller, neck hook, jaw-breaker and a castration device.

The next segment takes place in an 18th century courtroom, where three chosen at random by the judge and are put on trial before all guests being condemned to “Bedlam” (lunatic asylum).

This tenth segment – telling the story of Sweeney Todd - is the first of only two fictional events in the London Dungeon, which opened a year before the 2007 film. Visitors stand outside Mrs. Lovett’s pie shop where they are greeted either by Mrs. Lovett herself or by her male assistant, Toby, who quiz them on the type of pies they bake with implications to murder. The character then leads visitors into Sweeney Todd’s barber shop, which is filled with seats surrounding a single seat next to a table holding many implements.

The eleventh segment, the “Vengeance 5D Laser Ride”, is the second of only two fictional events in the London Dungeon, set around a séance at 50 Berkeley Square, which was touted as the most haunted house in Victorian London. This is the United Kingdom’s first “5D” ride, opening in May 2011, and it incorporates a 3D film, 4D special effects and 5D rider interaction with laser guns styled as Victorian revolvers.

Visitors then exit onto a fake street in Whitechapel for the Jack the Ripper segment. Since Vengeance was built, this section of the Dungeon has been drastically shortened, making it more compacted. The experience begins on a street with the mutilated body of a prostitute, where an actor describes the strange murders. Visitors enter a bed sit where the most gruesome murder took place, that of Mary Jane Kelly. Visitors are then led into a pub ten years after the murders in 1898. Most of the prostitutes were said to have spent their evenings here according to the bar keeper, who also sees ‘images’ of some of the girls. The lights strobe as Jack the Ripper suddenly appears with a knife behind a door, reaching out to the visitors before disappearing.

The final segment takes the visitors to before the 17th century, in a chapel that introduces the story of Mary Tudor, also known as Bloody Mary. An actor appears and tells visitors that heretics will be executed if they do not hold the same religion as Mary. After he finishes, Mary herself appears. A visitor is then chosen at random and taken to a burning post, and is charged with heresy against Mary and her government. As the room is filled with smoke and flames, the visitor is switched with a model of a burnt to death corpse.

In July 2010 the Advertising Standards Authority banned a digital poster advertising The London Dungeon. The poster featured an image of Mary I of England which transformed into a “zombie-like character”. The poster was deemed too disturbing to be seen by young children.

From 1st March 2013 the London Dungeon has been relocated from its current location on Tooley Street, to County Hall, next to the London Eye. New additions include “Descent”, “Henry’s Wrath Boat Ride”, “Guy Fawkes: The Gunpowder Plot” and “The Whitechapel Labyrinth”.

Wikipedia | official site

Michael Berryman is one of the most recognisable faces in horror films. This is due to several reasons, not least because he was born in the right part of America to become part of the film industry but also because he was born at the right time. We were quite definitely in a different age to which Tod Browning could produce a film which was essentially no further detached  than the freakshow it depicted (1932’s Freaks) – attitudes had changed but not strictly in the sense that Berryman’s appearance had no bearing as to whether he was cast – more that there was an inherent freedom to become an actor, the opportunity to act was rarely greater with the American  film and TV industry churning  out material at an incredible  rate.

Away from hypothesizing and scrutinising the use of actors whose appearance differed from the norm, it is interesting to see it  from  the actor’s perspective [NB. Berryman’s appearance is due to a genetic problem he was born with]:

Daz: What can you tell us about Hypohidrotic Ectodermal Dysplasia, in particular how it specifically affected you? Did having a father who was a neurosurgeon help?

Michael Berryman: My father was Sloan Berryman, a neurologist/surgeon. He assisted during my craniectomy operation. My skull was fused and some of my facial bones were underdeveloped. I was born before my sweat glands, hair and teeth were finished being formed. This condition required a haircut and surgery on a Saturday morning that I would have preferred spending at home. I awoke, blind and secured to my hospital bed, so as not to move my healing skull. The doctors literally built me a finished skull. Bones were chipped from my hips, to build bridges for the skull grafts. I remember my parents visiting me daily. The first time I could use my eyes, I saw my Mom and Dad’s faces as they handed me a small box of cowboys and Indians and horses. My vision was a circular area with gold light around the edge and I could only focus on the centre. I would move items across this field to see them. I rested a lot. The day came when I could go home. I thank God for my excellent vision and balance, but it was later on, in my teens, that I realized I had no ability to sweat. Heat stroke was always close at hand and I have dealt with prevention and treatment often. This condition kept me out of being a candidate for Officer’s Candidate School (U.S. Army). I was in R.O.T.C. [Reserve Officer’s Training Corps] at college when I had a dangerous event and a temperature of 103. So much for an officer’s commission.

Daz: Growing up is hard enough at the best of times – how were you treated in your formative years and how did you deal with, presumably, widespread ignorance of your condition?

MB:  I went to a Catholic grammar school and high school. This was the doing of the Los Angeles Archdioces. My mother had to agree to this or she could not be married in a Church. She was Catholic and my father was Presbyterian. High school was when I really learned about ignorance and prejudice and cruelty. Kids learn from society and parents. I was teased a lot. I was more concerned about a close friend, Billy, he wore leg braces and dealt with the affects of Polio. When people teased him or stole his crutches, I would defend him and angrily confront the teachers for not protecting him. He died in a car wreck on his senior prom night. He was a kind and wonderful young man. He had a heart of Gold. In public, when some kid would tease me, I would tell the bully, “You are a coward, and if we could switch bodies, you would have the chance to grow a soul and join ‘Humanity’. I pity your small-hearted life.”

Daz: Where was life taking you before you were discovered by George Pal? [NB. Pal had been a pretty big-time Hollywood producer since the 40s: The Time Machine and War of the Worlds were both his].

MB: Before I was discovered by George Pal, I had thought in my mind, that life could be great if I lived in Canada or Alaska. I wanted to be near Nature and the natural world. I read a lot and respected “The PeaceMakers” and all who “Did no harm”. I did learn from ‘The Good Book’ but when I was an Altar Boy at Saint Martin of Tours in Los Angeles (the same school for the Hilton family, the [Peter] Lawfords, Red Skelton family etc.) I learned the ‘Dirty Little Secrets’ that the Bishops and Popes have ignored for centuries. I am a survivor. I have no use for Religion. It enslaves the masses. I respect and appreciate real Spiritually and Humanity. “We are our Brother’s keeper”.

George Pal walked into my art/plant store in Venice Beach one day and we had a chat. He invited me to be in his movie (Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze [1975]). The rest is history! Thank you George.

Daz: Being thrust into the film world unexpectedly, how did you approach your early roles in Doc Savage and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest? From whom did you draw inspiration, both in terms of acting and also beyond?

MB: The film world was very new to me. However, I was on the set of [One Flew Over the] Cuckoo’s Nest for 127 days. I asked a lot of questions and I learned from the best. Thank you Saul and Milos. I have a minor in Art History, so the art of storytelling became my friend. I know my looks opened the door to film. However, I worked very hard, even on days off, I went to the set so I could learn everyone’s job and why it was important. I found my new family. It is the family of the storytellers and shamans and artists that share and explore the breadth and depth of humanity. I found acceptance and a space to create and support myself. Again, thank you George Pal, “You discovered me and trusted me to perform my role.” My hard work and study landed me more work. Looks were just a category at first. Soon directors learned I could do comedy and drama and much more.

Daz: The Hills Have Eyes must have been a brilliant opportunity to vent your frustration and learn your craft at the same time?

MB: The Hills Have Eyes was a lot of fun. The work was hot in the day and cold at night. Peter [Locke, producer] and Wes [Craven, director] were young then too. We busted our nut to make a real-to-life film with honest parallel families. I felt the script was wicked-smart. I easily found Wes to be a very talented friend with a vicious artistic approach to his work. I enjoy social commentary in my roles. Remember, films reflect life and sometimes entertain and teach. I learn everyday.

Daz: You don’t take the easy route… working in the desert and later in environments like jungles must have been gruelling?

MB: One day Peter Locke told me that because I was not a complainer during our difficult shoot, that I had created a character (Pluto), and I even did my fight scenes after returning to the desert right after having surgery on my arms and never complained.

Daz: At what point did you realise you were going to be the centrepiece of the poster? Was it now you realised you had a bona-fide new career?

MB: It was Peter’s thought to put me on the poster. I was jazzed! I knew it would bring exposure and more work. Of course I was aware that my face and difference would be out there for the whole world to see, but this was a career where I could work around my medical issues. There are fans and a/c and trailers to chill-out in. I felt appreciated. I studied my work and found that I did bring the roles to life. It felt great! People started to tell me in public that they liked my work too! Well, I thank all my fans and directors for letting me have the opportunity to join in the dance! Let’s do another movie, OK?

Daz: Did Hills Have Eyes 2 look a lot better on paper? If you could have had personal control over casting, plot, etc, how would you have envisioned the film?

MB: The Hills Have Eyes 2 …well I did like the dog flashback a lot. The film looked sharp, but the acting was so very weak, it was a disappointment. I would have left out ‘The Reaper’ role [essentially the main baddie]. The script needed a complete re-write.

Daz: Cut & Run – working with Ruggero Deodato is often considered more than a little hard work; what do you remember of his directing techniques? You must have been aware of Cannibal Holocaust - did his use of animal cruelty taint your view of him?

MB: Deodato likes to capture his actors and give them freedom, I like this. The exotic locations are a real treat. The work was very physical and demanding, but I was in terrific shape. I was aware of his animal cruelty. I have discussed the subject with Ruggero. We have our differences. I choose to be polite. However, I will say that I love working with the Italians! At the end of a day’s work, we get home to the hotel, clean-up and all sit together and have a long dinner with wine and laughter… they are my extended family. Ciao!!

Daz: You’ve appeared in two massive franchises; Star Trek and X Files, bringing you to the attention of a brand new audience. Generally speaking, you’ve played bad guys or the outcast – is this something you’re happy with, or do you yearn for a different kind of role [X Files certainly hinted that this was more than within your capabilities]? Are there parts you consider too degrading to take?

MB: I have turned down roles that were demeaning or prurient and exploitative. I revelled at the audition with Chris Carter for the X-Files. I got the concept right away, for the ‘Owen Jarvis’ role. I told Chris and director, David Nutter, that ‘I was the actor they needed’. I read and they said: ‘See you in Vancouver’. It was the role that changed my image in ‘Hollywood’. I had gone from a ‘monster’ to an ‘angel’. The ‘typecast’ had been defeated and I knew it! Star Trek was a no-brainer for my look and talent. I have always known that sci-fi writers are the future thinkers. They address very important issues. They give us a chance to appraise our humanity. I met Rod Serling one night in Brentwood,Ca. I was 14. He spoke with me for about 20 minutes. I told him how important his writing was to me. He smiled, took a drag from his cigarette, thanked me and said he had a new series in the works [which, of course, turned out to be Twilight Zone]. How often do artists get the roles that entertain and make a difference? Not very often. Most broadcast TV is pure crap.

Daz: Historically or contemporarily, is there another actor you identify with?

MB: Thank you Red Skelton for the heart, Rod for the vision, George for the chance, Gene Roddenberry for not giving up, Paul Newman for his invitation to ‘The Bogey Creek Gang’, Kelly LeBrock for the smiles, Queen Latifah for her heart of gold, my wife, Patty for always supporting, and my millions of fans who drive me onward. And a special wink to Judy… because she knows what powerful roles I still have to film.

I don’t have any one actor to say: ‘That is who I emulate’. I am only “Just Me’. Give me a good script, a great crew, and a director and producer who have the fire in their gut!! In all, take care of one another, get some popcorn and go to a movie! Life should be better after that!

So, the phone will ring and I will read and study and hope we have a real good ‘Craft Service’!! Yeah!

Daz Lawrence

Filmography

Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze (1975) – Coroner
One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) – Ellis
The Hills Have Eyes (1977) – Pluto
Un autre homme, une autre chance (1977) – First Bandit
Deadly Blessing (1981) – William Glunt
Invitation to Hell (1984) – Valet
My Science Project (1985) – Mutant #1
Weird Science (1985) – Mutant Biker
Cut and Run (1985) – Quecho
The Hills Have Eyes Part II (1985) – Pluto
Voyage of the Rock Aliens (1985) – Chainsaw
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) – Starfleet display officer
Kenny Rogers as The Gambler, Part III (1987) – Cpl. Catlett
The Barbarians (1987) – Dirtmaster
Saturday the 14th Strikes Back (1988) – The Mummy
Far Out Man (1989) – Angry Biker
Solar Crisis (1990) – Matthew
Teenage Exorcist (1991) – Herman
The Guyver (1991) – Lisker
Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time (1991) – Pilgrim #1
The Crow (1994) The Skull Cowboy (Scenes Deleted)
Double Dragon (1994) – Maniac Leader
Mojave Moon (1996) – Angel
Spy Hard (1996) – Bus Patron with Oxygen Mask
The Independent (2000) – Himself
Two Heads are Better than None (2000) – Chives
The Devil’s Rejects (2005) – Clevon
Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield (2007) – Jack
Penny Dreadful (2006) – Gas Station Worker
Brutal (2007) – Leroy Calhoun
Necrosis (2009) – Seymour
Brother’s War (2009) – Col. Petrov
Smash Cut (2009) – Philip Farmsworth, Jr.
Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster (2010) – Zombie Head
Mask Maker - (2010) – Fred
Beg (2011) – Clayton Starks
Below Zero - (2012) – Gunnar
The Lords of Salem - (2012) – Virgil Magnus
Red on Yella, Kill a Fella (2013) - Dr. Pepperdine
Erebus (2013) – Jonah Crane
One Please (2013, short) – Ice Cream Man
Stalker (2013) Mr. Kent
Army of the Damned (2014) Crazy Earl
Smothered (2014)
Cannibals (2014) – Uncle Albert
Stingy Jack (2014) - Jack Hawthorne / Stingy Jack
Dead AfterLife (2014) Driver Joe
The Mangled (2014) – Frank Bates
Zombificador (2014)
Brothers Grimm: Pest Removal (2014) rumoured
Gear Man (2014) rumoured

Alfred Reginald Natzick

aka Reggie Nalder/Detlef Van Berg/Detlas Van Burg

There are actors who look and act unconventionally – Lon Chaney Snr, Dwight Frye, right up to Steve Buscemi and Ron Perlman. If they, at any point in there careers, were labelled ‘The Ugliest Man In Hollywood’ or ‘The Face That Launched A Thousand Trips’, I imagine they’d look at their bank account or canon of work and risk a wry smile. If you’re Reggie Nalder, that’s the call-upon of your CV.

Born in Vienna in what was then Austria-Hungary in 1907, or indeed any point during a twenty year period around this time – Reggie was not a man for details like these – Nalder came from acting stock – his mother was a popular star of early German film and his father had also appeared on stage. His uncle signposted Reggie’s future career rather more clearly, running a decidedly rum cabaret known as Hoelle (‘Hell’) in the 1920s – more grand guignol than haute couture.

Catching the performing bug, he became involved in the German cabaret scene pre-WW2, particularly in physical performance, dance especially. He became famous in the scene for an act called The Apache which he performed with his then partner. Perhaps shockingly, and rather neatly bookending his career, this including live sex in front of a specially invited audience. With a hunchback barker, at the height of German Nazism. It’s fair to say that Nalder had a clear understanding of doing whatever it took to stay alive and stay in work.

As the above picture shows, Reggie had a fairly arresting visage at this time but nothing to prompt any running in the aisles. His facial scarring can be pin-pointed neither by date nor cause – he was unwilling to discuss the burns to the lower part of his face throughout his career, offering several reasons over the years, none of which are likely to add anything to the story. It wasn’t until after the War that Nalder made the transition into films.

Even his early roles thrust him amongst the elite of his contemporaries – he was directed in Impasse Des Deux Anges by Maurice Tourneur (father of Jacques) appeared in Le Signal Rouge alongside Erich Von Stroheim and in an early role created for an English-speaking audience in Adventures of Captain Fabian, also starring Errol Flynn and Vincent Price. These were relatively insignificant roles, though he was certainly mingling among the right company – his appearance in a slew of swashbuckling movies brought him to the attention of Alfred Hitchcock who duly cast him in the role of Rien, the assassin, in the remake of his own The Man Who Knew Too Much (1957).

Rien is thoroughly evil in what is actually rather limited screentime. His face is quite concealed with make-up though the camera lingers on him with a mixture of disdain and curiosity. In the cliff-hanging final sequence in the Albert Hall where Rien is to carry out his killing, only two faces stand out from the hundreds in the auditorium; Nalder’s and Doris Day’s, as if to highlight the evil ugliness of Nalder with the clean-cut beauty of the lead actress. Nalder’s angular face hangs portrait-like in the frame, as much the genius of Hitchcock’s direction as the self-awareness of the actor’s arresting power to capture the audience’s attention. His slow movements and insect-like twitching are both disgusting yet impossible to turn away from. Rien is rumbled by James Stewart and dies tumbling like the Fallen Angel from his perch, having the good fortune to miss Day singing ‘Que Sera, Sera’ at the film’s conclusion but not before becoming one of the most memorable villains of film at this time.

This was inevitably the breakthrough Reggie needed to get to Hollywood; naturally, the touch of Hitchcock did the same for any actor. He appeared in numerous TV shows in the early 60’s from Peter Gunn, to 77 Sunset Strip to two memorable episodes of Boris Karloff’s Thriller. The first of these, The Return Of Andrew Bentley (from a teleplay written by Richard Matheson), features a little too much Scooby Doo cape wafting by Nalder to really strike fear into mortal hearts as he plays a ghost intent on revenge. There is however something disconcerting about this episode as he appears without warning with his lantern-headed familiar, the suspense is purely down to his appearance as the part is silent throughout. His second appearance in the show in the same year as a graveyard caretaker in Terror In Teakwood, is a more interesting story concerning the massive hands of a dead pianist becoming hot property as an impossible to play piano recital is required. Nalder again is demonised as an ‘only by moonlight’ social outcast who can only make his presence felt through blackmail. Also appearing in this episode was Hazel Court – as we’ve seen, not the first time Nalder played opposite a beautiful female to accentuate his features.

It is worth noting that in many of the roles he had played thus far on the screen, he was not pointed at and mocked for his looks – not out loud anyhow. It was always the inference – how could he not be ‘the baddie’ looking like that? He was beyond redemption and beyond pity; he was used as a device to suggest pure evil. It would have been madness not to have gone along with this ruse on Nalder’s part given his increasing popularity for character roles in Hollywood but it is undoubtedly typecasting of the cruellest kind.

Appearing opposite Rock Hudson in Spiral Road won’t have hurt (playing a witchdoctor this time – I mean, c’mon…) but it was almost certainly his appearance (and Appearance) in The Man Who Knew Too Much that brought him to the attention of Frank Sinatra. The blessing of Sinatra was the most mixed of all possible blessings. If you were Sammy Davis Jnr it meant that Frank and his pals could take the piss out of you but no-one else. It was in any case not an approach that would have been sensible to turn down and lo, Nalder appeared in a silent role as a Russian spymaster in The Manchurian Candidate. Although this now meant Nalder’s CV was enviable by any standards it was maybe time to accept there were only ever going to be certain roles for Nalder.

For the rest of the decade, he was kept constantly busy but in nudge nudge wink wink roles that were veering from the ludicrous to paens for Hitchcock. His appearance as the ambassador Shras in the ‘Journey to Babel’ episode of Star Trek features him painted blue with antennae – despite pig-like characters in the ensemble trying to throw you off the scent as to who the baddie might be, it’s obvious even from only looking at the cast who the mischief-maker is going to be. A gift for the programme makers, elaborate (or perhaps not) make-up was utterly unnecessary to create the required feeling of unease.

Hitchcock’s most devoted disciple, Dario Argento, was keen not to miss a trick and cast him once more as an inept assassin in his breakout film L’uccello Dalle Piume Di Cristallo (Bird With The Crystal Plumage). Clad in yellow, one of the motifs of the film, Nalder has really hit his stride at this point – imperious in front of the lens, he was never afraid to stare the camera out. The futility of Tony Musante’s predicament in the lead is accentuated by the fact that he somehow manages to lose Nalder’s character in a crowd.

Nalder’s next role was pivotal – it made him famous in exploitation cinema forever but also meant he could never achieve the mainstream heights he longed for; Adrian Hoven’s Hexen Bis Aufs Blut Gequäl (Mark Of The Devil). Mark… is an insane film – it delivers scenes of revulsion and mayhem that are often promised in marketing and build up but fall flat or are just simply untrue. Once again appearing alongside exalted company (Herbert Lom and Udo Kier), the film is very much the evil twin of Michael Reeve’s Witchfinder General, which is in no way intended as a denigrating remark about either film.

There is an almost Mondo feel to proceedings; the washed out colours, the language (“Shampoo for his beastly head!” during a tarring and feathering sequence) and the ‘what, really?’ twists and turns are, in my mind, akin to the effect Ruggero Deodato achieved with Cannibal Holocaust. A couple of points labour the obvious a little too obviously; ‘hero’ Kier’s character is called Christian, Nalder’s Witchfinder without portfolio is called Albino, at once the outcast. Unusually, Nalder’s character is equally at home in silent mode, staring impassively as innocents burn at the stake as in full effect chatterbox, accusing any nubile wench in striking distance of sorcery.

‘Mark…’ also contains perhaps the most cutting remark in any of Nalder’s films; after an attempted rape of Olivera Vučo by his character has been rumbled, the victim cries out, “Look at his face! He is the Devil! Look at his face!”.  Nothing has been done by the make-up department to prompt this outburst – what we see on the screen is literally that – Nalder’s face. Whilst recognising that events are based on fact, even in the fairytale world of the movies, this is beyond damning. One can only wonder how the actor felt, the payoff being the success the film enjoyed and the fact that Reggie’s name was as near as it ever was to being up in lights. His career perennially being the double-edged sword, Nalder’s visage also made it to the front of one of the most famous of all exploitation marketing techniques, the ‘Vomit Bag’, which was given to attendees of screenings in America. Riding the crest of a wave of some kind, he followed this role with Hexen geschändet und zu Tode gequält  (Mark Of The Devil 2), by the same director. The film  is more of the same but with more of an emphasis on ‘tampering’ with nuns and shocking without really concentrating on storyline. In truth, you’re only ever going to watch this if you’ve seen the original (which is something of a misnomer – only Nalder returns from the cast and even he, understandably given the demise of Albino in the original, is playing  a different character) and that being the case are likely to come away disappointed – it never hits the same standards in any respect.

Nalder starred as a zombie in Curtis Harrington’s better than it should be TV movie The Dead Don’t Die. Harrington recalled,

“His face was like something out of a nightmare. He looked like the Phantom of the Opera. I felt sorry for him though. He asked me one day, “Why can’t I play a leading man?”, and I thought, “Man, you’re just not self-aware!”.

With friends like these…Two things: one, Nalder was perfectly self-aware but knew that although his looks made him in demand for certain roles, he wouldn’t have got half the work if he’d been a lousy actor, Secondly, there was one more important reason Nalder never got leading roles – his accent. He carried his heavy East-European accent throughout his career and though it obviously wasn’t a problem  for the European market, in America it limited him in speaking roles to Communist protagonists and soundbite-spouting mentalists. This can be seen in Albert Band’s Zoltan… Hound of Dracula, where, playing the servant, Nalder is all pithy “Yes, Master” and no substance beyond his understanding of how to portray himself physically.

It is slightly ironic that it is for the role in which he s most heavily made-up that he is most recognisable to people. Starring as Barlow the vampire in Tobe Hooper’s Salem’s Lot, he is possibly the most hideous vision of a vampire since Max Schrek’s Nosferatu in F.W. Murnau’s  film  of the same name. Nalder’s performance is as over the top as any of his career, at least since his cabaret days. This was in all senses to be the twilight of Nalder’s career. By now he had almost certainly accepted the kinds of roles he was going to receive and willingly accepted all of those he was able to take.

His career is bookended quite remarkably – from his earliest days performing in sex shows with his girlfriend, two of his final roles brought him almost full-circle. Appearing under pseudonyms Detlef Van Berg and Detlas Van Burg, Nalder appeared in two hardcore  films – Dracula Sucks and Blue Ice, alongside the likes of Jamie Gillis, Anette Haven, John Leslie and Ron Jeremy. Blue Ice is for completists only, a confusing excuse to have some Nazi imagery in an uninspired sex film. Dracula Sucks, however is essential viewing, with Nalder playing a non-sex role opposite Gillis’ Dracula. Nalder was unembarrassed by these parts; he was, of course, no more exploited here than he was throughout his career. In fact, for once, he received less attention in terms of appearance.

Let it be a mark of the man that he is equally famous for describing  Bill Cosby as “rude, arrogant and incredibly untalented” after starring with him in the crushingly awful Oh, God! rip-off The Devil and Max Devlin. Nalder died in Santa Monica in 1991, succumbing  to bone cancer. Had he defeated exploitation of his looks by becoming the exploiter? I think, in his own mind, he had, and that’s what counts. To him, his face was what opened doors, first to America and  then to appear in so many films and TV programmes – what kept him there was his uncanny ability to hold the audience in the palm of his hand, to hypnotise in a way only Klaus Kinski has ever bettered. Truly an artist, Nalder reminded us what acting was and could ever be.

Daz Lawrence, Horrorpedia.com

Paul Blaisdell was an American artist, sculptor and actor, best known for his creations for some of the early Science Fiction creature features made by Roger Corman. Despite the meagre budgets he was confined to, he is responsible for some of the most recognisable monsters of the late 50′s.

Blaisdell, born in 1927, began his career in Newport, Rhode Island as an enthusiastic artist with little recognition, making his way financially by repairing typewriters. His fascination for drawing monsters in particular did not lead to offers that prevented a stint in the army, though on his return to civilian life, he began to get his work published in the many lurid pulp magazines of the time, including the likes of Spaceways and Other Worlds. These paintings found at least one admirer of note, the redoubtable horror enthusiast and publisher, Forrest J. Ackerman, who offered to become his agent. This meeting of great minds was to lead to his true calling.

Elsewhere in America, prolific film-maker, Roger Corman had stretched himself to the limit whilst making the film, The Beast With A Million Eyes, running out of funds at the somewhat critical point of constructing the ocular-heavy monster. Approaching Ackerman for inspiration, he was first offered Ray Harryhausen as a port of call but his remaining $200 was nowhere near the going rate. Last chance saloon came in the form of Blaisdell whose acceptably low fees and imaginative creations appealed to Corman’s outlandish ideals.

Whilst only possessing two eyes (Corman superimposed eyes over the top) the resulting beast, nicknamed “Little Hercules”, is an 18 inch marionette, designed to be a slave of the actual many-eyed threat. Complete with tiny raygun and shackles, despite him being largely obscured by Corman’s whirling effects, it was enough to convince Corman that Blaisdell had the talent and necessarily low cost of being his comrade-in-arms.

The film that followed, The Day The World Ended, required rather more input, necessitating Blaisdell to not only design the creature but to bring it to life onscreen. Requiring a hideous, radioactive mutant from the dizzy far-off year of 1970 (this time christened Marty), Blaisdell constructed a monster from foam rubber and cast his own body so that the suit could be built around himself., a pair of long-johns donned accordingly. Two obvious issues arose from this; the first, that Blaisdell was only 5’7″, not the towering mutant imagined – fortunately, the head added a significant lift. Secondly, the nature of the foam rubber meant that during the rain-filled climax of the film, the suit’s interior swelled up enormously, coming close to drowning the actor inside; pre-velcro, he was literally glued in. Regardless, the film is one of the better efforts of the era and the innovation of the artist encasing himself in his own creation was deemed a huge success.

It Conquered The World is undoubtedly one of Corman’s most enjoyable sci-fi romps and features an iconic if ludicrous invader from beyond. Suffering the usual significant issues on-set due to money and time (as well as forgetting to bring the required lights!), Corman had ditched the intended glimpses of the cave-dwelling monster and dragged it kicking and screaming — perhaps not kicking, thinking about it — into the bring Los Angeles sunshine. Hidden within the rubber teepee-like alien, “Beulah”, the good Mrs Blaisdell insisted her husband don an army helmet to protect during a scene where is is charged by a bayonet-wielding army character. Just as well as the foam rubber provided little defense and would most likely have killed him in the most ignominious of circumstances had he not taken her advice. Ingeniously, Blaisdell had created a bicycle-chain/air pump system to operate Beulah’s limbs from inside but an onset ‘incident’ snapped the cables, leaving a slightly foppish-looking triangular imp thrashing around onscreen, Corman disallowing time for the appropriate repairs.

“Cuddles”, the She-Creature of Corman’s 1956 effort, broke new ground, seeing Blaisdell make a whole plaster cast of his own body and sculpting his design on top, only assisted by his wife in their garage. Not stinting on the scaly breasts, the creature is comfortably the most interesting and memorable aspect of the film and has become iconic even among monster/sci-fi fans who haven’t seen the film. The suit reappears in the last film Blaisdell worked on, Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow.

Further designs appeared in Attack of the Crab Monsters (just the one crab, this was Corman, after all) and Not of This Earth, but it his effects for the films It! The Terror From Beyond Space and Invasion of the Saucer Men, for which Blaisdell is best known. The stomping lizard-man of It! was designed to fit the diminutive artist but was actually intended for the large-chinned actor, Ray Corrigan, who was not at all happy with his lot. The mask’s mouth had to be opened so that he could breathe and his more importantly get his chin to fit.  Disguising the chin by painting it red and adapting it as the monster’s tongue, teeth were added to obscure the bodge job; lit-up eyes abandoned so he could see where he was stomping. Some scenes even see the actor adjusting the head so he could cope.

The huge latex and styrofoam heads of the invaders of Saucer Men fame, appeared comedic even by this standard of Corman’s career. The horror and drama rather ended up as a teen movie, though the creatures are now instantly evocative of everything that is science fiction from the 50′s.

Though his designs were also used in films such as War of the Colossal Beast, Attack of the Puppet People, Earth vs. the Spider (a.k.a., The Spider) and How to Make a Monster, Blaisdell fell out of fashion as quickly as he’d arrived, the rise of Hammer and sleazier American films putting an end to the quaint, otherworldly monsters of the 50′s. His influence however can be seen in the likes of Stan Winston and Rick Baker, who paid tribute to him with the work on the film Invaders From Mars.

Daz Lawrence, Horrorpedia

Excellent in-depth analysis and pics here: www.tor.com

Donald Pleasence (5 October 1919 – 2 February 1995) was an iconic English film, television, and stage actor. His most notable film roles include Michael Myers-obsessed psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis in the Halloween series and the villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, usually stroking a white pussycat, in the James Bond film You Only Live Twice. 

Pleasence was born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire and raised in the small village of Grimoldby, Lincolnshire. In 1939, Pleasence started working in repertory theatre, making his acting debut with the company as Hareton in Jane Eyre’s Wuthering Heights. During the Second World War, he was taken prisoner and placed in a German prisoner-of-war camp, where he produced and acted in plays.  He would later play Flight Lieutenant Colin Blythe in The Great Escape.

In 1954 he received critical acclaim in a BBC TV version of George Orwell’s sci-fi nightmare novel 1984. The adaptation was by Nigel Kneale (Quatermass) and also starred Peter Cushing. In 1960, He received good notices as the tramp in Harold Pinter’s enigmatic play The Caretaker, a part he would again play in a 1990 revival (as seen by the author of this bio).

Pleasence provided the voice-over for the British Public Information Film, The Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water in 1973. Intended to warn children of the dangers of playing near water, the film attained notoriety for allegedly giving children nightmares.

Pleasence’s first appearance in America was in 1962 in an episode of The Twilight Zone, playing an aging and suicidal teacher at a boys’ school in the episode The Changing of the Guard. In 1963, he appeared in an episode of The Outer Limits entitled The Man With the Power. He hosted the 1981 Halloween episode of Saturday Night Live with punk rock band Fear.

Horror fans best know the actor as the obsessed Dr. Loomis in the Halloween slasher series but he appeared and later starred in many horror films, beginning with a memorable role as notorious grave robber William Hare in The Flesh and the Fiends.

Horror filmography:

The Flesh and the Fiends / Mania (UK, 1960)

Circus of Horrors (UK, 1960)

The Hands of Orlac (1960)

What a Carve Up! / No Place Like Homicide (UK, 1961)

Dr. Crippen (1963)

Eye of the Devil (1966)

Death Line / Raw Meat (UK, 1972)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1973, TV movie)

Tales That Witness Madness (UK, 1973)

The Mutations / The Freakmaker (UK, 1973)

From Beyond the Grave (UK, 1974)

House of the Damned (Spain, 1974)

Barry McKenzie Holds His Own (Australia, 1975. Sex comedy with Pleasence as vampire Count Von Plasma)

I Don’t Want to be Born / The Monster (UK, 1975)

The Devil’s Men / Land of the Minotaur (Greece, 1976)

The Uncanny (UK, 1977)

The Dark Secret of Harvest Home (USA, 1978, TV movie. Narrator)

Night Creature / Out of the Darkness (1978)

Halloween (USA, 1978)

Dracula (UK, 1979)

The Ghost Sontana (UK, 1980, BBC TV)

The Monster Club (UK, 1981)

Halloween II (USA, 1981)

Alone in the Dark (USA, 1982)

The Devonsville Terror (USA, 1983)

Frankenstein’s Great Aunt Tillie (USA, 1984)

Phenomena / Creepers (Italy, 1985)

Nothing Underneath (Italy, 1985)

Into the Darkness (UK, 1986)

Specters (Italy, 1987)

Prince of Darkness / John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness (USA, 1987)

Off Balance (Italy, 1988)

Vampire in Venice (Italy, 1988)

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (USA, 1988)

The House of Usher (filmed in South Africa, 1989)

Paganini Horror (Italy, 1989)

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (USA, 1989)

Buried Alive (filmed in South Africa, 1990)

Shadows and Fog (USA, 1991)

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (USA, 1995)

Fatal Frames (Italy, 1996)

Buy The Films of Donald Pleasence from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

Frankenstein (also known as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein) is a 1994 American horror film directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring Robert De Niro and Branagh himself. It also stars Tom Hulce, Helena Bonham Carter, Ian Holm, John Cleese (Monty Python), Aidan Quinn and Richard Briers. The film was produced on a budget of $45 million and is considered the most faithful film adaptation of Mary Shelley‘s novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. The film opens with a few words by Mary Shelley:

“I busied myself to think of a story which would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature and awaken thrilling horror; one to make the reader dread to look around, to curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart.”

The story begins in the year 1794. Captain Walton is leading a daring expedition to reach the North Pole. While their ship is trapped in the ice of the Arctic Sea, Walton and his crew discover a man traveling across the Arctic on his own. In the distance, a loud moaning can be heard. When the man sees how obsessed Walton is with reaching the North Pole, he asks, “Do you share my madness?” The man then reveals that his name is Victor Frankenstein and begins his tale…

“The monster has always been the true subject of the Frankenstein story, and Kenneth Branagh’s new retelling understands that. “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” has all of the usual props of the Frankenstein films, brought to a fever pitch: The dark and stormy nights, the lightning bolts, the charnel houses of spare body parts, the laboratory where Victor Frankenstein stirs his steaming cauldron of life. But the center of the film, quieter and more thoughtful, contains the real story…” Roger Ebert, full review here

Buy on Blu-ray | DVD | Instant Video from Amazon.com or DVD from Amazon.co.uk

“…Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a work of lavish dedication and skill, yet as soon as the creature is let loose the film becomes rather listless. Branagh, for all his craftsmanship, hasn’t succeeded in tapping the morbid core of the material, the feeling that Victor Frankenstein’s experiment in creating ”life” is really a mask for his obsession with death (indeed, he can no longer tell the difference). The key problem, I dare say, is the director’s performance. He plays Frankenstein with all the spirit he can muster, yet he’s too conventionally engaging — his Victor is a kind of fervid yuppie workaholic who never seems truly possessed of a dark side…” Owen Gleiberman, here

“Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was a worthy attempt to give the story a big-budget makeover but ultimately it collapsed under the weight of its own pretentiousness, and it was further hampered by a lack of frights.” Bruce G Hallenbeck, The Hammer Frankenstein (Hemlock Film Books, 2013)

Buy The Hammer Frankenstein (includes other Frankenstein films) from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Frankenstein and Frankenstein’s Monster on Horrorpedia: Assignment Terror (Dracula vs. Frankenstein | Aurora Model Kits | Blackenstein | Bride of Frankenstein | Drak Pack | Flesh for Frankenstein | Frankenstein 1970 | Frankenstein’s Army | Frankenstein’s Daughter | Frankenstein’s Monster (Marvel Comics) | Frankie Stein | Howl of the Devil | I Was a Teenage Frankenstein | Jack P. Pierce (makeup artist) | Mad Monster Party? | Mego Mad Monsters | Monster Cereals | Monster Brawl | Shock Theatre Hammer Horror Trading Cards | Peter Tremayne (author) | The Spirit of the Beehive | Young Frankenstein

Wikipedia | IMDb

The Apparition is a 2012 American horror film written and directed by Todd Lincoln and starring Ashley Greene, Sebastian Stan, Tom Felton, Julianna Guill and Luke Pasqualino.

On May 21, 1973, six people conduct The Charles Experiment, a parapsychological exercise, in which they stare at a drawing of a deceased man, Charles Reamer, hoping to summon his spirit. Years later, four college students, Patrick (Tom Felton), Lydia (Julianna Guill), Greg (Luke Pasqualino), and Ben (Sebastian Stan) attempt to recreate the Charles Experiment on a larger scale by using modern technology. During the experiment, something attacks the students and pulls Lydia into the wall. Some time later, Ben and his girlfriend Kelly (Ashley Greene) are living together. After countless strange occurrences around their home, Ben gets 36 “urgent” emails from Patrick that first inform him of a new attempt at the Charles Experiment, followed by a warning that “containment failed” and finally “you are in danger”…

“Yeah, it’s pretty unsurprising – but on the other hand, the characters aren’t written as laughable cardboard cutouts who can’t hope to pull off a believable person. The characters here are likeable and genuine, and even though the ending wasn’t what I was looking for, the rest of the movie to a lesser degree was sort of what I wanted to see. It doesn’t rely on cheap scares or gore to pretend to frighten us – it relies on PG-13, if not cliched, images and suspense tactics that are decent, if not “seen before”.” Metacritic.com

“The Apparition’s something-crossing-over-into-our-world plot might not break new ground, but it’s far from the worst idea for a movie I’ve ever heard. In fact, there are quite a few details about the film that really work. The camera angles are frequently interesting. The visual effects are clean and well put-together, especially for the smaller budget. There’s a great usage of mold, easily the creepiest of all household annoyances, and the setting, a starter community filled with mostly empty houses, is clever, topical and the right level of creepy. Unfortunately, none of this matters at all because the main characters are completely unlikable, and the momentum is consistently ruined by poor decision-making. The film waits too long to give viewers the backstory, adding confusion instead of suspense. It lets its male protagonist loudly swear while his girlfriend is on the phone with her parents, making him seem more oblivious and douchey than endearing and funny. It seemingly throws us in the middle of the action but then allows it to drag on for a few days, sacrificing both real time excitement and longterm character changes. And perhaps worst of all, it chooses to vaguely explain itself.’ Mack Rawden, CinemaBlend.com

“Clocking in at 74 minutes (not including end credits), the only thing scary about The Apparition is that any studio would think to charge you to watch it. This supposed supernatural thriller is a hollowed out shell of creaky noises, shadows and utter nonsense. There is little doubt as to why this film sat on a shelf for over a year, waiting for an empty weekend to con unsuspecting moviegoers out of their money, but if you end up paying to see this don’t be ashamed to ask for your money back. I get the feeling writer/director Todd Lincoln was going for something ambiguous, believing what we don’t understand is scarier, and in most cases that’s true, but when all you give the audience are shadows, a few crazy visions and killer bed sheets you haven’t done anything to scare anyone. The highest praise goes to the Warner Bros. marketing department who somehow came up with the tagline “Once you believe, you die.” Even this makes no sense, unless I missed a seriously important piece of the plot, considering dying in this case has nothing to do with believing, unless you believe every shitty movie brings cinema one step closer to dying… In that case, the marketing is true.” Brad Brevet, RopeofSilicon.com

Buy The Apparition on DVD | Blu-ray from Amazon.co.uk | Blu-ray + DVD + Ultra-Violet | Instant Video from Amazon.com

Posted by Anushka

Lynn Lowry is an American actress, best known for her appearances in cult horror and exploitation films during the 1970s.

Born Linda Kay Lowry on October 15^th, 1947, she made her first film appearance in 1970 as part of the cast of ultra-gory shocker I Drink Your Blood, a tale of satanist hippies who become crazed after being infected with rabies. Although she only had a small part (and wasn’t even credited), she did appear in what has since become one of the film’s most iconic moment, brandishing a severed hand.

I Drink Your Blood was the first of three ‘infection’ films that Lowry made over the next few years, and these movies remain her best known and best loved work. After I Drink Your Blood, she had a pivotal role in George Romero’s The Crazies in 1973. This film rejigged the concept of Night of the Living Dead into a more plausible concept – a plane carrying a government bio weapon crashes, infecting the water supply in a small town and causing an outbreak of madness in the local population.

Lowry followed this with David Cronenberg’s Shivers (aka They Came from Within / The Parasite Murders), which again saw an infection – in this case a phallic sex parasite – running rampant, spreading through the self-contained residents of a soulless tower block. In this film, Lowry was effectively the female lead.

In all three of these films, Lowry proved to be an effective presence. Her unusual beauty and hippy chick style helped to create a certain unease, as the viewer was unsure if she was infected or not. In The Crazies, she featured in a controversial incest rape scene, while in Shivers, her character helps show how emotionally dead the characters are before infection (she memorably strips in from of her boss, who shows no reaction) and how sexually liberated they are by the infection.

In each of these films, Lowry has arguably the most memorable scenes – her startling death in The Crazies is an iconic moment, and her “even dying is an act of eroticism” speech in Shivers, along with her appearance at the climax, both erotic and unnerving, remain both unforgettable sequences and the point where the film’s controversial philosophy of liberation through sexual disease is made most clear.

Between these films, she appeared in Lloyd Kaufman’s directorial debut, the sex comedy Battle of Love’s Return, alongside cult movie queen Mary Woronov in Theodore Gershuny’s arthouse sexploitation drama Sugar Cookies, and Radley Metzger’s impressive erotic film Score. These films all took advantage of her willingness to undress and perform softcore sex scenes, and usually featured her as a naïve hippy type who gets caught up in a world of decadence and deviation. But she often turns out to be less the victim than she initially appears.

She also appeared in short-lived TV show How to Survive a Marriage in 1974.

In 1976, she appeared in the vengeance thriller Fighting Mad, and in 1982 had a role in the remake of Cat People. There were a handful of small part TV appearances in the 1980s and 1990s, but for the most part, her screen career was replaced with theatre and a singing work, with Lowry performing with a band playing show tunes, jazz and folk music.

However, in the last decade, she has made a screen comeback, starting in 2005. Her cult status has seen her called upon by a number of horror film makers, keen to have her appear in their movies. The highest profile of these is The Theatre Bizarre, where she appeared in David Gregory’s segment Sweets.

Other films of the last few years include Splatter Disco, Beyond the Dunwich Horror, Schism, Psychosomatika, I Spill Your Guts, The Legend of Six Fingers, Torture Chamber, Cannibals, Night of the Sea Monkey: A Disturbing Tale and several more. She also made a cameo appearance in the 2010 remake of The Crazies.

IMDb | Official website

Bio by David Flint

David Tynan O’Mahony (6 July 1936 – 10 March 2005), better known as Dave Allen, was an Irish comedian and actor, perhaps best known for his 1970s BBC TV series, which saw him sitting in a studio – cigarette in hand, glass of whiskey by his side – telling humorous, observational, sometimes acerbic stories, interspersed with sketches. He was famous – or infamous, depending on your viewpoint – for his mockery of religion, the Catholic church in particular. Many of his skits would probably not be done today in our times of heightened sensitivity towards / fear of religious offence.

So why is he here on Horrorpedia? Well, quite simply, Allen’s work often included horror movie pastiches. It’s clear that this was a man with an affection for and appreciation of horror cinema. While other comedians may have donned the cape and fangs and camped about as comedy Draculas, Allen’s sketches were more nuanced. Often, the humour didn’t become apparent until the  punchline, and until that point, many of his skits – based around Hammer style gothic horror usually, sometimes involving a Death figure straight from The Seventh Seal and once mocking The Exorcist – were straight-faced, atmospheric and often creepier than many a genuine horror film.

Most of these sketches are (at best) gathering dust in the BBC vaults, but a few have been reshown over the years. Here are a couple.

Posted by DF

Witchcraft – Magic: An Adventure in Demonology is a 1969 spoken word album, featuring the florid tones of horror legend Vincent Price as he discusses the world of witchcraft and the occult in all forms across four sides of vinyl, clocking in at an impressive (and exhaustive) 105 minutes.

While Price would crop up as narrator on albums by Alice Cooper and Michael Jackson (Thriller) in later years, this is his magnum opus – a book length study of witchcraft, produced by Roger Karshner and released by Capitol Records. Terry d’Oberoff is credited as both composer and director, while the impressive stereo sound effects were supplied by Douglas Leedy, a pioneer of late Sixties electronic experimentalism. There is no credit for the text, though it seems likely that this too is d’Oberoff.

The LP consists of Price telling tales of witchcraft and devil worship – not fictional horror stories, but factual (well, factual-ish) accounts of historical events and aspects of the occult, helpfully split into various chapters on the sleeve – ‘Hitler and Witchcraft’, ‘Women as Witches’, ‘The World of Spirits and Demons’ and so on. Price seems to have fun with the more lurid descriptions, his voice and (most likely) tongue in cheek attitude giving a gleefully macabre and somewhat leering tone to lines like “fornication with the Devil, child sacrifice, feasts of rotting human flesh” and “the tearing of her flesh with pincers, her body broken on the wheel, her fingernails ripped off, her feet thrust into a fire, whatever horrors the twisted mind of the hangman could devise” in the two part section entitled ‘Witch Tortures’.

A surprising amount of the album actually seems to be a ‘how to’ guide to witchcraft, with handy chapters on ‘How to invoke spirits, demons, unseen forces’, ‘how to make a pact with the Devil’ and ”Curses, Spells, Charms’. “Of course you should never resort to this… except in the case of the most dire necessity” says Price of selling your soul to Satan, giving a little chuckle as he does so, before going on to give full and frank instructions nevertheless. Oh those Satanic Sixties!

Price’s narration is occasionally interspersed with Macbeth-like witches cackling away in heavily treated manner. These are possibly the most over the top moments of the album, but they work as dramatic interludes.

The music by d’Oberoff is impressively creepy and discordant, as are the sound effects, which float from speaker to speaker in the way that only records from the early days of stereo did – even Price’s voice moves from left to right and back, adding a sense of displacement to the narration.

This is not easy listening, and neither is it the most approachable of audio books. But fans of Price and anyone interested in the occult will probably enjoy it. If nothing else, it’s a curious artefact from a time when public fascination with witchcraft, Satanism and black magic was at its peak.

Originally released as a double album with accompanying booklet, the album has been issued on a CD of dubious legality and can also be found online if you look hard enough.

Review by David Flint

Tales of Horror and Tales of Mystery and Horror are audio books released on cassette in the UK. They feature stories by Edgar Allan Poe, read by Christopher lee.

Tales of Horror was first released in 1979 on the Listen for Pleasure label, which specialised in audio books at the time. Supplied on two cassette tapes, the packaging was an oversized, thick card cover with artwork based on The Pit and the Pendulum. The other stories included were The Fall of the House of Usher, The Cask of Amontillado and The Black Cat.

Lee was the perfect choice for these stories, given them both a gravitas and a sense of the dramatic. For many younger British people, these tapes provided their first introduction to Poe’s writing.

This collection was popular enough to ensure a follow-up in 1985 – Tales of Mystery and Horror featured Lee reading Hop Frog, The Raven, Masque of the Red Death, The Tell-Tale Heart and Murders in the Rue Morgue (the latter story split into two parts).

While these and other audio books in the Listen for Pleasure series were hugely popular at the time, they have never been re-released on CD or MP3.

DF

Evelyn Ankers (17 August 1918 – 29 August 1985) was a British actress born in Chile.

She often played variations on the role of the cultured young leading lady in many American horror films during the 1940s, most notably The Wolf Man (1941) aged 23 opposite Lon Chaney Jr., a frequent screen partner.

Known as “The Queen of the Screamers”, she began her stint as a screamer at Universal Pictures with Hold That Ghost (with Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, 1941). Her other films include The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942, with Lon Chaney Jr. and Bela Lugosi), Captive Wild Woman (1943), Son of Dracula (1943), The Mad Ghoul (1943), Jungle Woman (1944, with J. Carrol Naish), Weird Woman (an Inner Sanctum Mystery, 1944), The Invisible Man’s Revenge (with John Carradine, 1944) and The Frozen Ghost (Inner Sanctum Mystery, with Lon Chaney Jr., 1945).

She also appeared in Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942, with Basil Rathbone), The Pearl of Death (1944, another Sherlock Holmes mystery), and fantasy adventure Tarzan’s Magic Fountain (1949).

Ankers made over fifty films between 1936 and 1950, then retired from movies at the age of 32 to be a housewife, having married leading actor Richard Denning, with whom she had starred in Hold That Ghost). Denning was himself no stranger to monster movies, appearing in Unknown Island, Creature from the Black Lagoon and The Black Scorpion amongst others. Ankers died of ovarian cancer at the age of 67 on 29 August 1985 in Maui, Hawaii.

Buy all six Inner Sanctum Mysteries on DVD from Amazon.com

Buy Women in Horror Films, 1940s book from Amazon.com

Buy Universal Classic Monsters on Blu-ray from Amazon.com

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