From Zombos Closet

Book Review: Dark Shadows
TV Milestones Series

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Darkshadows Zombos Says: Excellent

But whether naive or deliberate, pop or queer, Dark Shadows camp appeal is one of its strongest drawing points, one that many fans of the show appreciated immediately, while others "grew into it" as they got older (Harry M. Benshoff)

If words like diagesis (narrative), quotidian (commonplace), and metonymy (figure of speech and then some) give you frissons (chills) reading them, Harry M. Benshoff's academically-jargoned analytical look at Dark Shadows may not be for you. But I still recommend you give it a try: Benshoff keeps his usage of them to a minimum while the rest of his words, albeit quotidian, are well chosen, probing, and informative.

This pocket-sized book in the TV Milestones Series will initiate the merely interested reader and satisfy the devoted fan with its concise yet comprehensive coverage of this influencial, episodic Gothicmash of beasties and ghosties that originally aired from 1966 to 1971 on American television.

I was and still am one of those fans. As an impressionable kid, running home after school each day to watch the latest episode was an imperative. I was so hooked I even chose Barnabas as my Confirmation name. I blame actor Jonathan Frid for that; his memorable role of tormented vampire Barnabas Collins, with its romantically-tinged pathos overshadowed by his cursed sanguine darkness, propelled the series' unusual supernatural sashays into witchcraft, lycanthropy, Lovecraftian Mythos, hauntings, and vexing time travel well beyond 1960s soap opera pablum. Campy? Sure. Earnest in its low budget Gothic-noir intentions? Very much so. Groundbreaking in its use of the episodic soap dynamic to "sell" its spooky shenanigans to a wider audience of enamored housewives, counter-culture leaning teenagers, and easily seduced kids like me? Positively. Years after its initial run, Dark Shadows still thrives on DVD, through conventions and fan fiction, and in a planned movie reimagining courtesy of Johnny Depp and Tim Burton.  

Benshoff ably covers the cultural influences the show had (and still exerts), and details the daily business grind of producing it within budget and on time, which contributed to all those endearing flubbed line-readings, wobbly sets, and poorly chosen camera angles revealing smoke pots and fake trees. No other series on television has captured the giddy, slightly naughty fun radiating from the horror host pastiche of sly, self-referential cheekiness with horror as much as Dark Shadows. Not as blatantly campy as Adam West's Batman–the epitome of camp in the 1960s–but more subtle in its winking at the audience at a time when "there was a thriving "monster culture" in the United States."

From its generic story lines, full-throttle performances, cheap sets, and outlandish narrative events, Dark Shadows almost begs to be decoded as camp: what is meant to be frightening is also often ludicrously amusing.

But Dark Shadows was never played for laughs; whatever campiness emerged came from its stage actors and a serious approach to the "often ludicrously amusing" events. And to fans of the horreur fantastique like me, 'ludicrously amusing' is the bread and butter of our devotion to the genre.

In Chapter 4, Television Melodrama and Episodic Structure–my favorite section–Benshoff examines the series' daily format that maintained its "rigid narrative structure." His analysis of the voice-over during the opening credits, Robert Cobert's atmospheric music, the composition of shots, set design, thematic elements of episodes, and costuming is revealing and absorbing. In Chapter 7, Legacy, he rightly places Dark Shadows as the antecedent to the Gothic franchises of today, especially because of its "narrative importance of serialization." The two theatrical releases, House of Dark Shadows and Night of Dark Shadows are also assessed here, along with the vagina dentata imagery to be found in Night's one-sheet poster.

Hippie appeal, the actors , fandom, and the possible queer subtext to be found in all the male and female bonding going on around Collinwood round out Benshoff's more-than-a-mouthful's worth of thought-provoking reading available in handy monograph size.

Captain Company Battlestar Galactica

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The 1980s were all about spaceships, alien races, and adventures among the stars. While I grew up with the television series, the recent reimagining of Battlestar Galactica worked for me, too. But the earlier ship designs are still memorable, and the toys more playable. Especially with a few "space" monsters tossed in.

Before the new Battlestar Galactica kicked in, Richard Hatch lambasted it for how his character, Captain Apollo, would be portrayed, especially since he had been working hard on a revival of the original series himself. His passion did, at least, earn him a meaty role in the new series as Tom Zarek. Shrewd.

battlestar galactica toys

 

Mexican Lobby Card: War of the Planets

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This lively Mexican lobby card depicts the male astronaut with mucho machismo while the cringing female astronaut clings to him for protection.  The English language lobby cards are not as blatantly sexist. Pay close attention to their faces: she's looking at something that's making her fearful, but he's looking at her and firing his gun without aiming at what's scaring her. I'll leave it up to you more Freudian-centric readers to figure this one out.

guerra entre planetas mexican lobby card

An Examination of Fahrmann Maria (1936)
and Strangler of the Swamp (1946)

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Schmits by Professor Kinema

For all practical purposes a cycle of German films dealing with supernatural themes, beginning with Der Student Von Prag in 1914, ended with Fahrmann Maria (Ferryboat Maria) in 1936. Reaching into folk legends, superstitions, and popular beliefs German filmmakers were fascinated by tales of alchemy, deals with the devil, battles with mythical beings, and, especially, appearances of the personification of Death.

In 1921 Fritz Lang’s film Der Mude Tod (Destiny) featured a character with ashen features dressed in a dark robe: Death itself. The figure of the stranger who appears out of the fog shrouded shadows and is ferried across the river late at night in Fahrmann Maria is a direct descendant of Lang’s Death character.

An occasional twist to these old tales was the concept of Death being defeated (usually through the power of love) and one’s ultimate fate being postponed. Historically, variations on this element carried over a few decades later into Cocteau’s Orpheus and Bergman’s The Seventh Seal.

Frank Wisbar (born Franz Wysbar) was born in Tilsit in 1899. He acquired technical training from Carl Boese and Carl Froelich, and in 1932 directed his first film, Im Banne des Eulenspiegels, (Spell of the Looking Glass). Before directing what is considered his masterpiece, Fharmann Maria, his most noted film was Anna and Elisabeth (1934). The year of this film’s release was the peak year in the history of the German sound film up to the end of World War II, and totaled 147 releases. By this time the National Socialists were in power with Joseph Goebbels appointed as Minister For Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, and filmmakers were suddenly losing their artistic freedoms.

The loss in entertainment value was noted in a New York Times review of the cinema in Berlin (July 2, 1933, IX, 2:2). The reviewer praises Anna and Elisabeth, making special note that it was made before NS control. The reviewer states “…And maybe by next season the cultural politicians (not mentioning Goebbels by name) of the Third Reich will have come to the realization that the public pays money to the box office to be entertained, not to have party publicity crammed down it’s throat.”

Fahrmann maria photo
By the second most proficient year, 1936, with 143 releases, the quality of the German cinema predictably had fallen. Only two features of this batch approached any merit: Die Klugen Fraue, directed by Arthur Maria Rabenalt, and Fahrmann Maria. By 1945 the only other true fantasy film to be produced was Munchausen (1943). This film was presented as a lighthearted, overproduced, purely escapist color extravaganza. No other films of this era explored the darker side of undying love, sacrifice, and death defeated.

Wisbar and several of his associates, described as a group of first-rate Teuton film players, formed a cooperative. It functioned under the banner Pallas-Film GambH. Having interest in folk legend and the supernatural, Wisbar initially planned to make a film titled Der Werewolf, but was halted during production. Had this film completed it would have been one of sound film’s earliest forays into the world of cinematic lycanthropy, predating Universal’s The Werewolf of London (1935). The locale that was to be used, a favorite setting of the director’s, was Luneberger Heath near Hamburg. This heath was appropriately eerie with its watery bogs and foreboding looking poplar trees. Although an ideal setting for a werewolf story, the location would be subsequently used as a setting for a confrontation and resultant struggle with the personification of Death. Traveling far from the studio, Wisbar moved cast and crew here to lens Fahrmann Maria.

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An Examination of Fahrmann Maria (1936)
and Strangler of the Swamp (1946)Read More »

Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972) Pressbook

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"Women's Lib Controversy Stunt — The character of Vulnavia…is an ideal example of female servitude as she plays background music to Dr. Phibes nasty machinations; pops grapes in his mouth and provides gorgeous feminine comfort in complete silence to the master criminal. Have pretty girls picket your theatre with signs stating "Dr. Phibes is a chauvinist male monster…""

–from the Exploitation section of the Dr. Phibes Rises Again pressbook.

dr phibes rises again pressbook

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Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972) PressbookRead More »

Graveside With a Super Stooge

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Curly Grave01 A visit to Curly's graveside,
courtesy of Professor Kinema.

"N'yuk, n'yuk, n'yuk!"

If ever a visit to a gravesite conjurs up visions and, especially, sounds of days gone past, it's a visit with Jerome Lester 'Curly' Howard, nee Horwitz.

When one (that is, those of us who truly appreciate the finer art of comedy at it's absolute lowest) thinks of the Three Stooges, the first sounds one hears are the sounds that eminated from the pudgy, hair-challenged one of the trio. For sure, he was the only man in existance who could recieve a pretty girl's comment of, "My, what a beautiful head of bone you have there," and take it as a compliment; "Aw, I bet you say that to all the boys."

Moe was the 'Head Stooge,' Larry was the 'Stooge in the middle' and Curly was the 'Super-Stooge.'

Being the youngest of Jennie and Soloman Horwitz' five sons, his mother always called him 'my baby.' This nickname morphed into 'Babe.' In the first of the 97 short comedies he appeared in for Columbia, without his hair and mustache,  he was referred to as 'Jerry.' This again morphed into 'Curly,' a natural moniker for one sans hair. Like many other beloved performers and personalities, his grave marker carries the surname he was best known as instead of his birth name. Inscribed is Jerome Howard instead of Horwitz.

At Graceland, devoted fans make the pilgrimage to visit Elvis' grave. At Westwood Cemetery, fans make the jaunt specially to touch Marilyn Monroe's crypt. Assorted desciples visit Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris to 'commune' with the ethereal spirits of Kardac and Jim Morrison (attracting two vastly different sects of followers, to be sure). Rabid admirers in turn, including the ole Prof, have paid a special visit to a specific gravesite in the Home of Peace Memorial Park in East Los Angeles. With a tradition reaching back into antiquity, offerings are left at this gravesite, usually stones brought from the visitor's home. Unfortunately, fans tend to feel the need to take a souvenir back with them. This often results in a chip from the tombstone.

CurlyMilk01 It's a true homage to a bygone personality and his contribution to culture (especially the USA's 'junk culture') when his image is used in conveying a message in modern times. Along with Jeopardy's Alex Trebek and former US President Clinton, Curly was asked one of the eternal questions of our age: "Got Milk?"

While visiting a friend in Brooklyn in the 1990s, he led me to a certain nearby billboard. Milk will always remain an excellent source of calcium for stronger bone density, which was especially needed for what Moe always referred to as Curly's 'cast iron skull.'

If asked whether or not he drank a lot of milk, his reply could only have been "Soiten-ey!"

PK/JK

Insidious (2010)
Poltergeist On Elm Street

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Insidious Zombos Says: Good

Combining Poltergeist‘s spectre of evil intent poised at the threshold, and Nightmare On Elm Street‘s gloved spiritus emeritus, Insidious provides scares aplenty, making it a perfect first date movie.

The evil intent comes from unwholesome spirits trapped in the Further, a place that’s dark, endless, and appears to be one train stop from Hell. The paranormal investigator who explains the Further takes too much time to do it, and gives us more mumbo jumbo about it, and astral projection, than we really need to know; but getting to this point and moving on from it are what make this popcorn movie from director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell so much fun.

The Lambert family moves into their new home, a dark old house that has a darker, creepier attic. Soon, voices coming from the baby’s monitor, dark shapes moving between rooms, neatly shelved books found scattered on the floor, and banging on the front door in the dead of night make mom Renai (Rose Byrne) fearful the house is haunted. When her son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) cannot wake up, and the loud noises and disturbances escalate, she insists they move.  Her husband Josh (Patrick Wilson) reluctantly agrees.

Their new, new home is brighter and cheerier until those disturbances start up again. Muting colors increases the dread. When the Lamberts are in the older, darker house, it’s still a tad brighter before Dalton falls into his coma-like sleep, then the color fades away. Color returns in their second home until the haunting continues, then it fades. Josh is losing his color, too. He avoids going home, saying he needs to stay late at work, leaving Renai terrorise en solo. Her mother-in-law Lorraine (Barbara Hershey) believes her: Lorraine has seen and spoken to the evil shadow with the red face hovering near Dalton’s bed.  She knows what it wants. She explains why Josh has been avoiding the situation and why there are no photographs of him as a child.

Elise (Lyn Shaye), a psychic investigator and family friend,  is called in. Elise’s two nerdy, geek-squad-style investigators pull out the ghost-hunting gadgetry and start searching for evidence, each trying to top the other with his technical savior faire. When one pulls out a flashlight after the lights go out, the other pulls out a bigger flashlight. Elise sees the red-faced thing hovering around the boy and realizes Dalton, like his father, has out of body experiences–astral projection–and has traveled too far into The Further: a place where spirits and demons dwell. He’s stuck in The Further while they try to take over his body and use it as a bridge to reenter the living world.

It’s hard to tell when Wan is being cheeky or serious, especially when Elise dons a goofy gas mask contraption to enter a trance, but the chills keep coming. I counted four jump scares I jumped at, then stopped counting but didn’t stop jumping. Insidious plays like a William Castle spookfest. One of the pararnormal investigators even has his own makeshift version of Illusion-O to find spirits by looking through different colored filters.

If you insist on eating popcorn while watching this movie make sure it’s not buttered; the people sitting around you will appreciate that. It also helps not to have buttered fingers when you need to reassure your date everything is okay. She (or he) will need lots of reassurance.

Funny Caption Time: Hey, Abbott!

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Rummaging through a pile of photographs from Professor Kinema, I was stymied by this one of Abbott and Costello.

Zany? Yes. Nonsensical? Yes. Perfect picture for a funny caption? Certainly. So add your funny captions to the comments section already!

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