Wednesday night is Christopher Lee night with no less than six of his movies scheduled. I've never actually seen HORROR HOTEL so I'll be recording that one. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that THE DEVIL'S BRIDE was scripted by Richard Matheson.
Sunday: More Mummy movies, including the 1959 Hammer films remake of THE MUMMY with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.
They've got The Black Hole up on the streaming app, so I might have to check it out. I've been curious about it for a while. Is Dreamscape any good?
It's basically the "Good" version of Nightmare on Elm Street where Psychics are trained by a Scientist to help people suffering from Mental disorders by going into their dreams. I won't spoil the rest though.
Wednesday night: Bela Lugosi marathon. The high points are WHITE ZOMBIE and MARK OF THE VAMPIRE. The rest, honestly, are mostly Poverty Row fare that he made after his fortunes had declined . ..
Did you catch the documentary? If so, how was it? Anything new, or was it retreading things we've all heard before? For some reason, they never count The Island of Lost Souls as one of the go-to Lugosi films during marathons; he did not have top billing, but it was as unique a role (and not playing on his "Boo! I'm the Dracula guy!" identity) as his work in Murders in the Rouge Morgue, The Black Cat, The Invisible Ray, Son of Frankenstein (Ygor being as distinctive a Lugosi role as Dracula, IMO),Black Friday, or The Wolf Man. In other words, there was more great Lugosi to see before he was forced to make the kind of career-downturn films (what you referred to as "Poverty Row" films) that eventually dropped him at the doorstep of the dirty toilet bowl of "filmmakers"--Ed Wood.
The documentary was interesting. It was 90% about Shelley's novel and its themes, with only occasional nods at the movies. By coincidence, I had just attended a library book club discussion of the novel so it was the perfect capper to the day. (Warning: there's some grisly surgical footage, about real-life transplant experiments on living animals, that made me look away a few times.) As for Lugosi . . . yep, he made a lot of great movies before the later, cheaper stuff, which was why I was a little surprised that the Lugosi marathon leaned so heavily on the likes of The Devil Bat. Mind you, TCM had just shown SON OF FRANKENSTEIN two days earlier, as part of a Frankenstein marathon, so I can't really blame them for skipping that one. And I'm not sure people really associate THE WOLF MAN with Lugosi as well, although he makes a memorable cameo in that one. Personally, I would have included Murders in the Rue Morgue and maybe The Raven, which is arguably the only one of the Karloff/Lugosi collaborations in which he has the bigger, splashier role. Meanwhile, Thursday morning and afternoon is all ghost comedies: The Canterville Ghost, Topper, The Ghost Goes West, Blithe Spirit, etc. Boo!
Well, poo! Reads as though I would have really enjoyed that Frankenstein documentary! Greg, you happen to know off hand if that documentary is available on TCM's website, do you?
You're asking me a techie question? Hah! I'm a Luddite who still watches TV on TV. Seriously, I wouldn't be surprised if TCM reruns it sometime between now and Halloween.
Damn, they pulled Black Hole already and I forgot all about it when I was looking for a movie to watch yesterday morning. I checked for you, and it is on the WatchTCM website. It is Strange Life of Dr. Fankenstein, right?
Saturday: This afternoon: The Power. Tonight: The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. Late tonight: the first two Dark Shadows movies from the seventies. (Not to be confused with the recent Johnny Depp movie.)
Sunday night: more vintage Mummy movies on TCM tonight, including BLOOD FROM THE MUMMY'S TOMB, based on Bram Stoker's "The Jewel of Seven Stars"--which I actually reprinted at Tor many years ago.
That must have been interesting; its rare to hear "Frankenstein" mentioned without it being a reference to the movies. Well, he is the one who curses Larry Talbot, so that's a pretty important role. Yes...The Raven. That's a film that does not get as much love as it deserves. It certainly brought out a different kind of performance in Lugosi.
UGH..the Tim Burton Dark Shadows...more repressed people (except Eva Green's Angelique) in pale make-up looking like death barely warmed over, even on the living characters. Probably the worst example of a "fan" forcing his own, typically Tim Burton hang-ups into an adaptation, despite claiming to respect the source.
Okay, TCM is pretty much non-stop horror movies for the next few days. Too many to list . . .. As for Lugosi in THE WOLF MAN, it's an important part, plot-wise, but Bela only really has one scene early on in the movie, so I can forgive TCM for not thinking of it as a "Lugosi movie." Meanwhile, ISLAND OF LOST SOULS (with Bela as the Speaker of the Law) airs tonight at eight.
Island of Lost Souls is fantastic-- kind of an unsung classic of the era, like Freaks. It took forever for it to come out on DVD.