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.