FIFTY YEARS AGO TODAY

Fifty Years Ago Today was Saturday, May 5, 1973…it was a big day in our locality. Jeffersonville, Indiana, where I lived, was immediately across the Ohio River from Louisville, Kentucky. In most senses, Jeff was a suburb of Louisville (just don’t tell any Jeffersonvillians that I said that). So the doings of Louisvillians were our doings as well and today was the biggest day of the year in our area. It was Derby Day! As the day began, things looked good for the race favorite, Sham. But, unfortunately for that nice horsie, there was a tall, beautiful stallion in the field name of…Secretariat. Arguably—and frankly there’s not much argument about it—the greatest thoroughbred racehorse of all time…

Secretariat in mid-flight.

And me? Still married, still between shows, probably working a lot for my dad. Just bein’ an electrician, working long hours, bringing light and heat and power for the toaster to middle America! God bless me!

Today’s movie showed up on Channel 32’s late movie. I was looking forward to this one. It was one of the last films of The King of Horror, Boris Karloff. This night I got to see…

THE SORCERERS

I had no chance to see this in a theater, though I came close. One evening, late 60s, I took a long country drive. This led me toward Paoli, Indiana. I’d passed through the area several times a couple of years earlier when I was doing a show nearby. But this night, I just needed a nice drive and I remembered the roads being good and the countryside attractive, so off I went.

On my way home, I passed the Paoli Drive-in Theater. There, on the marquee, I could read THE SORCERERS. Having heard of it from the monster magazines, I knew it was something of a big deal because of Karloff.

I’m not sure, after 50 years, why I didn’t just pull in and see it that night. Best possibility: Some of these small drive-ins only opened on weekends, so maybe it wasn’t even open that night.

Couple of days later, I drove back to Paoli, in hopes of seeing the movie. The drive-in was open, but an entirely different, and not interesting, bill showed on the marquee. Thus, u-turn and straight home. That was my only shot at seeing THE SORCERERS at a theater.

Between it starring Karloff and my having a short history of missing it, the movie was a double-dang must-see for me.

I enjoyed THE SORCERERS that night but wasn’t blown away. And 50 years later, never having seen it again, I remember almost nothing about it. I can envision Karloff sitting in a small, sad apartment…and, yeah, that’s about it.

So it’s high time to see it again, and here we go…

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It was nice and very surprising to see Karloff walking so much and so well. Strolling through London streets, even with a cane, he seems almost nimble. Most of his latter-year movies find him either in a wheelchair or looking very much as if he should be in a wheelchair…

He does look old as the hills and, probably for the first time in his long career, he seems to wear no makeup at all. His true dark complexion is on full display, blotches, bags, wrinkles and all. Ironic, I suppose, because did any major actor spend more of his screen time buried under gloop and grime?…

                                    Ah, Boris back where he belongs--in a mad lab.

This movie, much more than the highly vaunted WITCHFINDER GENERAL, makes me regret the too-early loss of Michael Reeves to the movie world…

The acting is topnotch, at least in the leading roles. Catherine Lacey and Ian Ogilvy are excellent and Karloff is even better, bless him. The old trouper still getting it done. In fact, apart from TARGETS and his small role in COMEDY OF TERRORS, this is probably the best film performance in the last decade of his career. He’s very good…

At one point, Ian Ogilvy speaks the line, “I have my own personal Open Cesare.” Of course, this should be “Open Sesame.” No idea if one should blame Ogilvy or the script, but it does make his character sound a little dopey…

The speeding motorcycle scene is pretty good but kind of dangerous. Clearly it was shot guerrilla style with Ogilvy and his leading lady actually on the bike. I doubt the movie’s insurers (if there were any) would have approved…

A bonus from the movie: ultimate British bird Susan George has a 

one scene role and is both decorative and effective.

The movie is obviously extremely low-budget. Matter of fact, between the skimpiness and the plot line, this could almost have served as the fifth of Boris’s Mexican movies. If not, that is, for the acting and the sheer smarts of the thing…

But it’s not all Peaches and Sunflowers. Some of the sound recording is pretty bad (the result of low budget and real locations, I assume), some minor role actors aren’t really up to it, there are a few slow, unfilled moments (not enough meat on the script to go around), the locations have the benefit of being real, but are, nevertheless, small and tight and drab…

Of course, it doesn't end well.

But all those negatives are outweighed by the genuine talent and energy of its very young director and its very old star.

                                                  Meanwhile, monsters were everydamnwhere.

 FIFTY YEARS AGO TODAY

Fifty Years Ago Today was Saturday, March 17, 1973…An angry pilot of the Khmer Air Force killed 43 people and injured 35 in Cambodia after making a dive bomb attack on the presidential palace in Phnom Penh. Most of the dead were inside the barracks of the palace guards, including families of the guards…Born: Caroline Corr, Irish musician and drummer of The Corrs; in Dundalk, County Louth …

       Caroline Corr, the not unattractive drummer for a not unattractive musical group.

Top song in the country was KILLING ME SOFTLY WITH HIS SONG by Roberta Flack. A goodie.

Myself, I was out of college, out of work, and almost out of my marriage. Just had to hang on a few more months. During this coming week I would have been pretty intensively in rehearsal for THREE MEN ON A HORSE. This would be one of my last shows before I joined Actors Equity and went all perfessional. It would also be the only college show I did after graduating. Hey, my old director needed me! He flashed the Rick-Signal and I answered. The show would open on the coming Friday and close the next night. It was a small-college show in a small town. Not enough audience for more than that. But it was a good show with a really primo role for yours truly.

But there would be no rehearsal this Saturday night, so I could stay home and take in the double feature on Channel 41’s FRIGHT NIGHT. We were treated to two chillers every Saturday night. This went on for a few wonderful years and was hosted by local actor Charles Kissinger as The Fearmonger. Basically we saw a closeup of Kissinger with spooky underlighting. He would introduce the movies and sprinkle in too many ancient groaner jokes. I never laughed at one of them. I would have been embarrassed if I had.

The big attraction on this FRIGHT NIGHT was a Karloff classic from the ‘30s. Had it been a Universal production I probably would have seen it already. But this was from Warner Brothers. That night I watched, for the first time…

THE WALKING DEAD

I had seen photos from this movie in Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine. As I recall they gave off spooky vibes and, while I’d heard or read very little about the film, what I had picked up in bits and pieces had all sounded positive, so I was very hopeful. 

And this time I was not disappointed. The movie was a crackerjack, no doubt about it. Spooky and weird and kind of oddly religious. I thought it was great, just great. For some reason, I think I’ve seen it only once more in the last half century. Seems like I would have sought it out more than that. But, I think not, so I believe this will be only my third look at it. I remember atmosphere more than anything else, so I expect this viewing will appear pretty fresh to me. Let’s find out…

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Movie fans know Michael Curtiz as the director of CASABLANCA, YANKEE DOODLE DANDY, and THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD. Monster Kids know the truth. He’s the guy who made DOCTOR X, MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM, and THE WALKING DEAD. He also had a reputation as a taskmaster, driving cast and crew through 15 and 20 hour days. I have to wonder about the working relationship between slavedriver Curtiz and Boris Karloff, one of the founders of the Screen Actors Guild and a zealous advocate of actors’ rights. Might have been a tense set.

Phenomenally terrific supporting cast: Edmund Gwenn, Ricardo Cortez, Barton MacLane, Henry O’Neill, Addison Richards, Paul Harvey, Joe Sawyer. Young romantic leads Warren Hull and Marguerite Churchill don’t come off as well, particularly Hull. They also play a couple of frankly reprehensible, cowardly characters. 

It’s such a WB movie--dark urban streets, gangsters, reporters, “torn from the headline” elements.

The first people John Ellman should have targeted for his revenge were the young couple who waited till the last possible instant to provide the alibi which could have saved his life.

                                                            John Ellman, pre-death.

From my earlier viewings, plus some stuff I’d read, I thought that Karloff had borrowed too much of the Monster for this performance. Now I don’t think so. The movie itself is somewhat guilty of that, but not Boris. I mean, it’s the same actor and he’s playing a reanimated corpse, so there are, of course, similarities. But Karloff’s John Ellman is not the Monster Part II.

                                                          John Ellman, post-resurrection.

I was right before. It’s a great horror movie. First class right down the line. I would say that it’s one of two great horror films Karloff made in the ‘30s for someone other than Universal, the other being Columbia’s THE BLACK ROOM.

                                             SIXTY YEARS AGO TODAY 

Sixty Years Ago Today was Sunday, March 17, 1963…Mount Agung erupted on Bali, killing 1,150 people. On February 19, the volcano had killed 17 people after being dormant for more than a century, and then had a more violent eruption a month later….At the Vatican, Mother Mary Seton was beatified. In 1975 she would be canonized, becoming the first American saint...

Boston Celtics’ great Bob Cousy played his final game in the NBA…The number one song in the country was “Our Day Will Come” by Ruby and the Romantics…Personally, I was in the 7th grade at Parkview Junior High School in Jeffersonville, Indiana and I was doing just fine, thanks for asking…

That afternoon I watched a semi-horror film of which I’d heard but about which I knew almost nothing other than the fact that it featured three big-time scary names. Yeah, boy, that afternoon I settled on the living room sofa to watch…

YOU’LL FIND OUT

I knew that Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, and Peter Lorre were in the cast. I assumed that they would be the “stars” of the film. So disappointment loomed. I also expected to see a genuine horror film, so….more looming.

Oh, it not only loomed, it arrived. I didn’t hate the movie. It was impossible to muster enough feeling of any sort, much less ramp it all the way up to “hatred”. Just disappointing, that’s all. Not much of a movie, not good roles for the trio of master villains, not really much of a horror film. Oh, well.

I’ve rewatched it a couple of times over the years and have come to enjoy it a little more mostly because, believe it or not, I’ve grown somewhat fond of Kay Kyser and his band. So sue me.

So here and now, upon the solemn occasion of the 60th anniversary of my first look at YOU’LL FIND OUT, it’s time to watch it again, give it one more shot. And, considering my current age, and my lack of caring about the movie, it’s probably safe to assume this will be my final viewing. Ooof. Just scared myself.

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Kay Kyser is billed over the title, Lorre gets second billing, Lugosi fifth. Fifth…Then, after everybody else, comes a big solo full-screen billing “And Boris Karloff.”

The opening “comedy” with Kyser and Jeff Corey and some cute girl is very weak, the sort of opener which might well have seen audiences rising en masse to go demand refunds.

Boris and Bela both get nice spooky introductions. Lorre’s is a little muddled. 

Kay is not a bad actor…for a bandleader. Ish Kabibble is not funny…for a lead comic.

Kyser’s girl singer Ginny Simms is both more attractive and a better actor than leading lady Helen Parrish. At the risk of being severely ungallant…that’s not saying much.

Karloff’s wonderful voice is put to some great use.

The band’s songs are definitely nothing special, still, it’s nice, mellow, old-fashioned, ‘40s big band stuff, so it’s still welcome.

I don’t think Lorre ever looked more like “Peter Lorre” than he does here. It must also be said that he often gives the distinct feeling of someone who really does not want to be there.

Lugosi gets lots of screen time, lots of chances to lift eyebrows and flare nostrils. Unfortunately, apart from the pleasure of seeing the actor himself, his scenes are pretty silly.

But his reaction to Ginny Simms is so blatantly admiring that it’s pretty funny.

One thing in favor of big band musicals, we don’t have to wonder where all the instrumental music on the soundtrack comes from.

The comedy in the script is just outrageously unfunny, as if scripted by a depressed, perhaps suicidal writer.

It’s rather strange that the white-haired, mustachioed Karloff wears a white-haired, mustachioed ghost mask. It looks like Karloff wearing a bad Karloff mask.

In the end credits, the billing is Kyser, Lorre, Karloff, Lugosi. That’s a little better.

So…no, not much of a movie. I’d say it is a horror film, but just barely. And I can’t make up my mind about the use of the Big Three. There’s no doubt that they’re wasted, as is the celluloid for that matter. But to cast three of Hollywood’s legendary villains and make them…villains. I don’t know. I guess. But maybe there would have been worth in making them harmless guys who just look like villains. Like TUCKER AND DALE VS. EVIL but with Kay Kyser. I don’t know, probably not. But I did feel, as I watched it, that it was just too easy to cast Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, and Peter Lorre as villains. Too on point sorta.