The Silver Screen Oasis

Love the fun performance by Una O'Connor in this one ... she's fantastic!
Brian

Una is one of a kind!

moira, I think I did see and vaguely recall Merv wearing a bow-tie and bowler hat in that RUE MORGUE version.

Or maybe it was the ape.

RedRiver wrote:When I think of actors likely to present Paddy Chayefsky's material, Kim Novak and Fredric March do not come to mind! Jack Warden, Eileen Heckart, Carolyn Jones: those are Chayefsky characters! But this just makes me want to watch the movie even more. Something different. The library assures me it should be here by the end of this year, or the beginning of the next presidential administration at the very latest!

So true, ha! But even Bette Davis, Debbie Reynolds, and Rod Taylor are believably kitchen-sink in THE CATERED AFFAIR.

Hope you don't have to wait TOO long to see MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, lol.

SVENGOOLIE has done it again, I just loved the INVISIBLE MAN classic last night and its amazing how good the special effects are in this movie back 1933. I just wanted to say that this Claude Rains and Company did a masterful job of putting it altogether - and its a James Whale's stupendous job of directing it and the writing combo of H.G. Wells and R.G. Sherriff did a wonderful job of keeping us entertained. I thoroughly enjoyed it ...

Suppose I overdid my preparation for last week’s The Invisible Man and this week’s The Bride of Frankenstein, but it’s been a lot of fun:

Re-read Christopher Bram’s The Father of Frankenstein.
Re-watched Gods and Monsters, and the Making of doc and the film again with Bill Condon’s commentary.
Read for the first time James Whale by James Curtis. This extremely fascinating bio was given a big recommendation by Bram in his Afterward, and I’m glad I finally got around to it. I, too, strongly recommend it to anyone fascinated by the early sound days of motion pictures.

Watching Invisible Man, I was reminded of the humor (Una’s a scream when she screams) and the special effects that blew my socks off the first time I saw it, about sixty years ago. As mentioned in Curtis’ book, Whale was the one who decided much more frequent use of special effects was needed in order to draw the audience’s attention to Claude Rains’ not-really-there leading character. One thing that wouldn’t have been necessary today: They had to go through the film and correct imperfections by painting with opaque dye—on “approximately sixty-four thousand frames (or roughly 45 minutes of film).” Clearly, this film advanced the use of special effects and was responsible for a major increase in their use and the innovations that resulted and are still being discovered.

Needless to say, Gloria Stuart didn’t have nearly the same effect on me then as she did this time, especially after her powerful performance in Titanic. Looking forward to seeing her again in Bride.

Curtis includes a little story Stuart told him abou filming a scene in The Old Dark House: “Her first night’s work at Universal involved crawling over the back lot in an open touring car with Raymond Massey and Melvyn Douglas. ‘We had wind machines, we had rain machines, it was cold, it was windy ... we were wet. It took about four or five hours to shoot and the set-up was very elaborate because of the distance we traveled.’ The two men complained extravagantly about the working conditions while Stuart remained relentlessly cheerful throughout. ‘It being my first location shoot and my second movie, I thought it was such fun and I really enjoyed it.’”

That’s a good example of the wonderful things to be found in Curtis’ book.

So "The Bride" is next week. If ever a sequel was better than its predecessor...If Universal had chosen to combine them, it would be the unrivaled greatest of all horror films. It pretty much is that anyway! I guess there's nobody on this board who hasn't seen this monumental achievement. If there is, do not miss THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN! It's a fine example of what classic filmmaking was all about. Who needs words? Just look at these pictures. The main character can barely speak!

I'm afraid The Final Four will conflict with Svengoolie tonight. I'm going to go with Kentucky vs. Wisconsin. But if you're not into basketball...THE BRIDE!

My siblings and I got our Basketball-mad sis a new 39" HDTV for The Final Four aka "The High Holy Days" so she can see Kentucky vs. Wisconsin in style for her upcoming birthday. Can't wait to see both events and her expression when she walks in to find it.

Picture-in-picture of The Game and The Bride should be pretty fun.

"Three pointer. Good!"

I gather "Son of Frank" is on this weekend. Third, and third best, of the series!

Is it DRACULA'S DAUGHTER this weekend? I believe that's what I heard.

That's what I heard too. I don't think I have ever seen the entire movie yet. Maybe this time...

It's pretty good, Moira. It's not one I've seen multiple times either. But I caught Svengoolie's last showing.

RedRiver wrote:It's pretty good, Moira. It's not one I've seen multiple times either. But I caught Svengoolie's last showing.

Thanks for the vote of confidence ... Red River and I thinking about watching too. I haven't seen this one yet!