Pressbooks (Horror, Sci Fi, Fantasy)

Bedlam was Val Lewton’s last film for RKO. It was Karloff’s third and final collaboration, too, with him, following Isle of the Dead and The Body Snatcher. It was also the most expensive Lewton RKO film, after the profitability of his earlier movies gave Lewton a green light for a $350,000 budget. Unfortunately, the second Hollywood horror cycle was already fading and it lost money. (Drfreex)

The second horror cycle was from 1939 to 1946. The first cycle ran from 1931 to 1936 and was driven by Universal Pictures. Seeded by the silents like Phantom of the Opera (1925), it began with Dracula (1931), with Bela Lugosi, and Frankenstein (1931) with Karloff, then continued with The Mummy, The Invisible Man, Bride of Frankenstein, and others, like Paramount’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) and Island of Lost Souls, MGM’s Freaks, and Warner’s Mystery of the Wax Museum. The first cycle ended with the changing management at Universal (the Laemmle family lost control of the studio in 1936), the stifling Hays Code with its compensating moral values, and mounting resistance from the British censors. Britain was the single most important foreign market for English-language films, and a clampdown there,  culminating in the dedicated “H” (horrific) certificate, made horror sales very risky.

The second cycle was born in 1938 at the Regina-Wilshire Theatre, at Wilshire and La Cienega in Beverly Hills, showing a rerelease double bill of Dracula and Frankenstein. Audiences ate it up and Universal heard the dinner bell, producing Son of Frankenstein (1939), with Karloff in his final turn as the monster, alongside Bela Lugosi as Ygor and Basil Rathbone as heir to the Frankenstein family’s penchant for calamity.

The second cycle was fueled by Universal’s rekindled monster franchise and ended with the monster rally movies that teamed up the terrors. The Wolf Man (1941) with Lon Chaney Jr., The Ghost of Frankenstein, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), and House of Frankenstein (1944) and House of Dracula (1945), were joined by Val Lewton’s Cat People,  I Walked with a Zombie, The Seventh Victim, The Body Snatcher, and finally Bedlam. Other studios contributed lower-budget entries too, from Columbia and Monogram fillers to Fox’s The Undying Monster and Paramount’s Dr. Cyclops. These last two, along with House of Dracula, hint at the seeding for the third cycle–sci-horror–that will take hold in the 1950s.

By 1946 the fuel had expired. Postwar audiences shifted toward film noir and adult dramas, turning away more and more from the Gothic and supernatural. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) proved a box office success, mixing comedy with terror, but it was the end of the classic horror cycle, where the terrors of the real world were beginning to be more scary than the cinema ones. Atomic radiation, anyone?

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Bedlam (1946) PressbookRead More »

Other blogs bring you exciting, thrilling, introspective, and evocative movies that will impress for generations. We, however, will have none of that. Instead, we give you movies like Missile to the Moon; which, although jaw-dropping and introspective (as in why am I watching this thing, sort of way), does provide you with a snapshot into the 1950s penchant, blessedly brief as theater fodder, that gives you planets with only women hating men, and the lucky men who land on them. The planets, I mean. From Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (actually they landed on Venus; the planet, that is), Queen of Outer Space (which recycled the costumes from Forbidden Planet), Cat-Women of the Moon, which had slinky-sexy costumes and the women meowing around all slinky-sexy like, and Fire Maidens From Outer Space.

Of course, the women-only society is soon disrupted by internal strife, the women falling head over heels for the men, with the lone hold-out being the aloof, man-hating queen, who must succumb to the upheaval. Yay men! Seriously in-depth studies of the eternal struggle between the genres, and crafty scripting of societal relationships exploring the challenges of the male and female bond are explored of course, making these movies historically important for research into understanding the ongoing issues of political and transgressional actions within our society. –Nah, I’m just kidding you. Leave your cerebellum in your pocket and just watch Missile to the Moon for the goofy pleasure of it all, then roll around the catnip with Cat-Women of the Moon. Better yet, I strongly recommend a booze and choose party with friends and strangers for an all-night marathon, too.

While Van Helsing and Dracula are missing from this Hammer horror, the story switches up vampire lore to create a cult of vampire worshippers looking for some fresh blood. Newlyweds soon find themselves up against the evil, but are saved by Professor Zimmer (Clifford Evans) who turns the tables on the cult by putting them on the receiving end of the bloodletting. This film and The Devil Rides Out are two lost opportunities for Hammer to expand into interesting follow up movies with both the Professor here and Christopher Lee’s excellent Duc de Richleau, and leaning into more occult-themed horrors. For American audiences the movie was retitled Kiss of Evil (for television) and heavily edited for violence. The finale is somewhat of a letdown only due to the special effects for the time, but the production values of Hammer were always well executed on small budgets. One wonders what the movie would have been like if Peter Cushing and Lee could have taken up their classic roles for this one.

One of the pleasures reading these old pressbooks is learning all the creative ways promotion was done before social media. In this UK pressbook for Dracula Has Risen From the Grave, there’s the public service announcement from a mobile van driving through town and the lighting of the theater lobby a nice ominous green to prime the audience’s mood. Then of course you have the catchlines: “Harrowing Ferment of Feat; Not for Those of a Nervous Disposition; It Will Fascinate and Stun You, etc.” Interestingly enough, those catchlines can work with just about anything these days too.

Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man, part of their movie meetings with the Universal Studios’ classic monsters, was and still is a fun romp for the comedic duo. While it takes elements from the many Invisible Man movies before it, interestingly enough, Bud and Lou seem to forget they met the invisible man (well, at least one of them) at the end of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. It would have been fun if the studio had followed up on that, but it got lost by doing Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff instead. During this time, the duo had finally settled with the IRS regarding back taxes, but their partnership was breaking up. They held it together during filming, but when it came time for Lou to slap Bud around in their scenes, the jabs were harder than usual. If you are new to Abbott and Costello, watch The Time of Their Lives (1946) first. The fantasy, the comedy, and the romantic pull are all just wonderful.

By the way, the third film in the invisible man series is The Invisible Woman (1940). Directed and scripted like a screwball comedy, sort of, it falls short on both the comedy and the sci fi/horror aspects. It’s worth a look due to its special effects and actor John Barrymore, along with the lively Virginia Bruce. For some reason, the risqué element of her being nude, albeit invisible, caused a bit of concern. Of course, none of the nude invisible men faced that problem for some reason.

Castle of Evil has a disintegrator chamber, a robotic clone, creepy castle with lots of secrets, a ray gun, and an old dark house styled setup with people brought to the place to off them one by one. Tossing together every tried and true pulp magazine ingredient into a cheap dish that was filmed in fourteen days (back to back with Destination Inner Space), you will either get drunk after seeing it to sober up or love it for the cheesy spread of a film it is. Blood Beast From Outer Space (which is the American title, of course), named the more sedate Night Caller From Outer Space in the UK, has aliens abducting pretty girls for breeding assistance to save their dying planet. The aliens method of entrapment? They place and advertisement in Bikini Girl magazine. It would be fun to see a remake today, given our social media environment. Not sure if dating apps are still a thing, though.

It has John Saxon in it, his first sci fil movie. Being properly British, the movie devotes some time to its cinematography and script, giving a noir-ish tone with a moody philosophical (aka thoughtful thriller) runtime. Something most American audiences couldn’t quite wrap their head around since there wasn’t enough of the action or terror they expected from the Blood Beast title. Some idiot decided to colorize the carefully filmed black and white composition around 2011, so if you do want to see it, go with the original version. The poster art for both movies is rather awfully cheap looking, but in that attention-grabbing awfully cheap way, so it kind of works well.

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Castle of Evil and
Blood Beast From Outer Space
Double Bill PressbookRead More »

You can tell a Tarzan movie with Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O’Sullivan was a big deal by this showmanship pressbook. It’s huge: sixteen colorful, large format, pages of merchandising and theater promotion, printed on cardstock. Check out the cool Ballyhoo! float, the coloring pages, tie ups (that Remotrol game is so period), ice cream cups, giant vampire bats theater marquee (somebody PLEASE have a photograph of that in situ), streamers, standees, hangars (they were double-sided mobiles), tire covers(!), Tarzan Bread(?), and tons more stuff to promote the movie and sell merchandise. Sadly, the giant vampire bats scene was cut because audiences found it too scary. Imagine that!

The original version of this film, titled The Capture of Tarzan, was shown to preview audiences in 1935 and was heavily criticized for scenes of gruesome violence.  The most notorious scene was one involving a giant bat attack in a swamp. Hollywood legend has it that, at the preview showing, the sight of these giant creatures carrying off panic-stricken porters sent kids screaming from the theatre.  So strong was the negative reaction from parents, critics and media, that the studio ordered much of the film re-shot. MGM replaced the original director, James McKay, with a series of directors with the final credit given to Richard Thorpe. (ERBzine)

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Tarzan Escapes (1936) Showmanship
PressbookRead More »

I posted the Anglo Amalgamated pressbook back in 2019. Here’s the American Releasing Corporation’s campaign manual for Day the World Ended and The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues. Day the World Ended cost around $96,000 to produce, but raked in a nifty $400,000 at the box office. The highlight of the movie is the mutated monster (lovingly known as Marty) created by Paul Blaisdell. Due to the foam rubber construction, getting it wet caused near drowning for Paul, who liked to play what he created in spite of the challenges. While the movie is a cheapie done in 10 days, it is now a classic B terror because of its cold war fear, good and simple story, the necessarily tight scene framing on a budget (using the Bronson Caverns and the Sportsman’s Lodge restaurant’s pond at Ventura Boulevard in San Fernando Valley), and monster Marty, looking somewhat goofy if you’re an adult, but very terrifying if you’re not. Corman and his crew had to end shooting at the pond by the time the restaurant opened for dinner.

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Double Shock Show!
From American Releasing CorporationRead More »

Count Yorga, Vampire, helped bridge the Victorian-styled, mostly in the country vampire,  to the urban vampire, prowling city streets for his (or her) next victim. Holding this movie back from becoming a more impressive note in the history of cinema vampires is its bare bones budget and lack of style in direction. Robert Quarry is a standout in the role, but he’s given a pedestrian script that lacks nuance and vitality. That aside, it did spawn a sequel, so the box office was less lifeless than the movie.

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Count Yorga, Vampire (1970)
PressbookRead More »

I’m not sure why The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T is “the greatest merchandising picture.” Oh, wait a minute…yeah, okay.  With the “greatest merchandising campaign ever prepared” it does have a lot of merch and tie-ins going for it. I would say, though, that I lean more toward Star Wars being the greatest merchandising picture, given the amount of toys, clothing, decorations–you name it–that it has generated over the years. One thing: merchandising for pictures didn’t start with Star Wars; SW certainly took it to a whole new level, but product placements and merchandising off a film have been part of the movie business for many years. Still, this one is impressive.

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The Dr. T Theatre KitRead More »