FIFTY YEARS AGO TODAY

Fifty Years Ago Today was Saturday, October 13, 1973…All 122 passengers and crew on

Aeroflot Flight 964 were killed when the Tu-104 jet crashed during its approach to Domodedovo

Airport in Moscow. An electrical power failure on the aircraft disabled its navigation system. The

jet struck power lines roughly 10 miles from the runway while tilted to the left at a 70° angle.

Among those killed was Lieutenant General Fyodor Bondarenko, Chief of the Soviet Union's

anti-aircraft missile defense….The first father-son combination in major league U.S. sports was

unveiled as ice hockey legend Gordie Howe was joined by his sons Marty Howe and Mark

Howe for the Houston Aeros' opening game in the World Hockey Association against the Los

Angeles Sharks.

“Half-Breed” by Cher was still top of the charts… Cher - Half-Breed (Official Video) [HD]

 

Myself--still in the middle of the run of GUYS AND DOLLS. That is all. Wish I had some photos

to share. Wish I had some photos just for my own remembrance sake, but no. There are a

couple of newspaper publicity photos around here somewhere, but they are almost worthless

in the original. Trying to reproduce them here would only make it worse.

On TV that night: STARLOST, EMERGENCY, NBC SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES (THE

ANDERSON TAPES), HEE-HAW, MASH, ALL IN THE FAMILY, MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW,

BOB NEWHART SHOW, CAROL BURNETT SHOW (“Eydie Gorme and Paul Sand in a salute

to old time movie serials, Tarzan, the Cisco Kid, and the Wolfman.”), ABC SUSPENSE MOVIE,

GRIFF. On channel 41’s FRIGHT NIGHT, The Fearmonger hosted viewings of THE

MYSTERIANS and THE SPIDER WOMAN STRIKES BACK.

Here we see Harvey Korman as "Sir Larry Talmadge". Unfortunately, this comic 

face-pulling is as close as he gets to being a wolf man.

I’ve loved Barbara Steele since that Saturday afternoon in 1961 when I sat, utterly rapt, in the

dark and crumbling confines of The LeRose Theater, getting my first look at BLACK SUNDAY.

Or maybe I fell for her even earlier, when I first saw the image of her spike-dented but still

beautiful face in Famous Monsters magazine. 

Whichever…despite this helpless infatuation, other than BLACK SUNDAY and THE SHE

BEAST, I can never remember which of her Italian Gothics is which. It’s “The Barbara Steele

Confusion” (“The Barbara Steele Confusion” to be sung to the tune of “Crystal Blue

Persuasion”): 

Tommy James&the Shondell_Crytal Blue persuasion

So I’m really interested to see 

THE HORRIBLE DR. HICHCOCK

…just so I’ll know which movie this is.

The movie gets off to a strong horror film beginning--digging in a cemetery at night, opening

a coffin, caressing a beautiful corpse. Oh, yeah. Bring it on…

I love how all the fancy-schmancy guests crowd around to hear the hostess’s droning,

sleep-inducing, and highly discordant piano playing…

Babs looks gorgeous (of course), but may be working a bit too hard at that acting stuff…

 

I was shocked when some character mentioned being in London. I don't think I've ever seen

a movie which felt less London-ish than this, including LAWRENCE OF ARABIA and THE

SEVEN SAMURAI…

Robert Flemyng is really sweating his way through that acting himself…

 

Never ceases to amaze me how a single match can illuminate an entire wing of the old

dump…

Flemyng's fake sideburns do provide occasional amusement. So that's something…

This is muy Gothicky, got a bunch of the old standard spooky castle bits, but an almost total

lack of originality or subtlety. You could almost call this Stoic Horror. There's no action, no

movement, no life or interest in the dialogue. No wonder Babs and Bob are straining at

Thespis's chain. They are about all that's there… 

What teensy bits of interest there are all arrive in the last three minutes of this movie…

Babs tryin' to escape from a coffin. 

Or...is she trying to escape from the MOVIE?????

Awww, it’s basic and not bad to look at, but it’s so very unspecial. Maybe this is

another DVD to dump.