This Mexican lobby card for La Cripta Del Terror has it all: bats, skeleton, crypt, death, victim (suitably undressed), would be rescuer, moonlight, and a dollop of seedy exploitation guaranteed to bring in the audience every time. The colors are vivid, the promise of horror palpable. Oh, and having Christopher Lee in the movie doesn't hurt, either.
Don't laugh, this 1970 "first sex-horror" movie (La Rose Ecorchee) has a 6 rating on IMDb. So there. The pressbook is a 6 page foldout, 9 x 12 inches in size. Pretty much the same size as that furry dwarf with the menacing spear.
Here's the 6 page foldout, 12 x 18 inches, pressbook for Universal's double bill, Curucu, Beast of the Amazon, and The Mole People. Sweet.
Here's the movie pressbook for Weird Woman (1944)). A less than stellar remake in 1980, Witches' Brew, starring Teri Garr and the tall man himself, Angus Scrimm, doesn't conjure up as much deviltry. How could it without Lon Chaney, Jr?
A few small ad mat cuts, but otherwise all here. Blood Bath's poster artwork condemnable with its sadistic victimization. Tagline's no walk in the park, either. Hostel seems mild in comparison.
Here's a wonderful pressbook for a good movie that was lost in the shuffle from classic monster to classic sci fi in the 1950s. For me, John Agar epitomized the 1950s sci-horror everyman who showed equal measures of tupperware party simplicity and cool smarts.
With permission from Arena Publishing and Dr. Vollin, MD (aka Freddie Poe), here's How to Collect a Monster: The Birth of a Magician and the Tragedy of the Spook Show, from Movie Collector's World, issue 689, November 2005.
Continue reading "How to Collect a Monster:
Harry Wise and the Lost Art
Of Spook Shows" »
With permission from Arena Publishing and Dr. Vollin, MD (aka Freddie Poe), here's How to Collect a Monster from issue # 711, September 2007, of Movie Collector's World. Wherein the good Dr. V pays a visit to the metaphysically inspiring Monster Bash Convention.
Funny, but we must have brushed shoulders without realizing it because I was at the Bash that year, too. On top of that, it was the first time I met up with the zany Drunken Severed Head (aka Max). Max spent a good amount of time at the convention carrying around Bela Lugosi's pants. But that's another story.
In the 1960s I spent hours in the basement running my film projector, playing all of my Castle Films and Republic small reel movies. Adventures of Captain Marvel was my favorite mini-movie. I had to splice the celluloid together now and then with scotch tape, but I did get a lot of use out of it. Just think, all 12 chapters condensed into a few minutes running time. Now that's editing.
Ronald Stephenson informed me this booklet is one of several published by Jack Mathis in the late 60s or early 70s. Mathis wrote Valley of the Cliffhangers and Republic Confidential. His Valley of the Cliffhangers Supplement gave the chapter by chapter synopsis and cliffhanger photos for all 66 Republic serials.
Outrageous poster art makes this movie come alive. Mexican lobby cards use the 'pretty face' poster art (see page 7) instead of the skull face.
Dr. Vollin, MD surprised my royally when he sent along this wonderful original promotion flyer for Francisco's Mid-Nite Spook Frolic, tucked in-between the pages of an issue of Movie Collector's World. The issue was among a bunch he had mailed to me, so I could catch up on his many How to Collect a Monster articles. I can't explain why spook shows are the cat's meow for just about every monsterkid, including me, but maybe it has to do with nostalgia, simple frights that aren't too frightful, and the creepy cool atmosphere of schlock and art delivered through movie and magic and monster antics that makes it so endearing.
"Francisco (real name unknown...and no first name of San) was one of the first from the earlier days of the ghost show craze to have huge success. He also was one of the few who continued to do his so-named "Midnight Spook Frolic" through most of the decades these live shows were the most popular--while keeping it relatively free of the gore and sexuality others started using later. He mostly played up the spiritualism aspects that legendary Houdini and Thurston did a decade or two earlier in their own similar shows. A lot of that involved the old floating table routine, mind-reading tricks and the famous cabinet where a fake séance takes place as the magician sits with his hands tied while the audience sees objects being thrown around the area. Francisco did incorporate a little horror in his shows (within reason) by using a well-known illusion of a skeleton who removes his head that then conveniently floats over the supposedly goosebumped audience. This segment used the process of black art that these shows relied on for most of the best effects." (The History of the Midnight Spook Show, Greg Brian, Yahoo Voices)
Vincent Price looks so natural with that big bat flying about his head, don't you think?
