Black Sunday Radio Spots

From Granny Creech

Greetings, my children.

Well, things are blooming right along here in Squirrel Hollow and everybody is out pruning plants and pulling weeds at every opportunity. It’s quite a job, but nice to see colorful things growing in the gardens.

I was actually out in my flower and plant garden the other day putting down some fresh mulch when Uncle Thaddeus stopped by for a visit. I hadn’t seen him in a month of Sundays and it was good to get caught up on all his activities.  He had spent the last few months traveling around to various oddity shops and antique emporiums in and around Squirrel Hollow and he said he had an important find for me. He pulled it out of his old leather satchel and handed it to me. I was overjoyed! It was a radio spot record to one of my favorite movies: Black Sunday, the 1960 Italian film about vampires and creepy stuff.

I was thrilled…for two reasons. I’ve been after that record forever and just never could find it. Secondly, all my sources have all but dried up and old radio spots are getting harder and harder to find. So this find of Uncle Thaddeus’s was a godsend.  I thanked him profusely. He just grinned and said he will keep looking for more.

Ah…Black Sunday. I remember when it first came out in May, 1961.  I had heard the radio spots on the radio when I was a wee tyke and was enthralled. I didn’t have a tape recorder back then, so I was unable to record them off the air, but the spots stayed with me in my mind. Back then I didn’t know radio spots were on records and sent to theaters to advertise on local radio stations.  It wasn’t until much later that I found out all about them and the search was on. My website here on old Zombos’ Closet is the result of a life-long love affair with these spots and a years-long collecting effort. And now, I finally had Black Sunday.

I wasn’t able to see the movie when it first came out because it opened mid-week at the local drive-in and I couldn’t stay up that late due to it being on school nights. Besides, my parents didn’t think it would be appropriate for me since it was advertised as being too scary. It wasn’t until much later that I finally caught it on TV.  I thought it was OK, just a little slow going with no gore or monsters. And it was in black and white. Hmmm.

Well anyway, as I grew up, I developed a certain fascination for it as I read more about it. It wasn’t until the internet came into being that I found out it had been edited from a longer Italian version called Mask of the Demon, the international title.  It was considered a classic of the Italian horror genre, due to it being Mario Bava’s directorial debut. I knew that name – he had been an assistant director, cinematographer, and special effects director on some earlier productions, such as Hercules (1958) and Hercules Unchained (1959). He had rescued two non-completed films, The Giant of Marathon (1959) and Caltiki, the Immortal Monster (1959), one of my favorites. Black Sunday was his first solo effort.

I ordered the original version on Blu-ray and was hooked. The haunting radio spots from times past came back, and I developed a greater appreciation for the movie. It is dark, bleak, haunting, and visually appealing. Along with an Italian cast, the movie stars Barbara Steele in a dual role, and John Richardson, of One Million Years B.C. (1966) fame. Steele would go on to become the queen of 60s horror films. I was also able to purchase the American International version that I had grown up with.

With the advent of home video I have been able to contrast the two versions. The differences are striking. Even though the movie was filmed with most of the cast speaking English, the international version was dubbed in English featuring new voices. When AIP bought the movie, they re-dubbed it again into English with still different voices and revised dialog. I personally find this version more appealing – the voices more closely match the lip movement and fit the actors better. AIP also gave it a new, more vibrant music track by Les Baxter. Certain “gross” parts were shortened and some scenes deleted. Surprisingly, the scenes with a full length, topless portrait of Barbara Steele’s character Princess Asa remained. You couldn’t show a nail being pushed through a corpse’s eye or a fake head being burned in a fireplace, but some nudity artwork –however anatomically incorrect– could remain. With all that said, if you never saw the original, uncut version, the AIP version stands on its own very well.

As far as visual effects, Mario Bava used his talents to include several glass matte paintings and an interesting split screen effect showing Barbara Steele as Princess Asa and Princess Katia together in a couple of scenes near the end. He also used the tried and true aging effect for both characters using red makeup on Ms. Steele and photographing her first in red light and then changing to green light to bring out the makeup.

And so, here are the spots that fired my imagination back in 1961. Paul Frees was tapped by the AIP Publicity Department to do the voicing honors.