Roger Langridge Takes Us to the Mean Streets of Spinach City!
Ya gotta love Spinach City a take off of Sin City by Roger Langridge! You can see a full-size version at The Bristol Board.
Black Sabbath (1963) / Z-View
Black Sabbath (1963)
Director: Mario Bava
Screenplay: Mario Bava and Alberto Bevilacqua
Stars: Michèle Mercier, Lidia Alfonsi and Boris Karloff
The Pitch: “Hey, let’s have Mario Bava direct Boris Karloff!”
Tagline: This is the night of the nightmare…
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Boris Karloff introduces a trio of horror tales and stars in one. In the first, a woman preparing a corpse for burial steals the dead woman’s ring… and comes to regret it. In the second a young woman receives terrorizing phone calls from a man watching her. In the third Boris Karloff plays an old man returning home from battle with vampire… but did he win?
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15 Intense Facts About “Cape Fear”
Roger Cormier and Mental_Floss present 15 Intense Facts About Cape Fear. Here are three of my favorites…
1. STEVEN SPIELBERG TRADED THE MOVIE TO MARTIN SCORSESE FOR THE RIGHTS TO SCHINDLER’S LIST.
Martin Scorsese was apprehensive about making Schindler’s List after the controversy surrounding his previous two films, Goodfellas and The Last Temptation of Christ. Steven Spielberg, on the other hand, said he “wasn’t in the mood” to make a movie about a “maniac.” So, once Scorsese promised Spielberg that the Bowdens would survive in the end, they traded. Spielberg had Bill Murray in mind to play Max Cady. Scorsese had other ideas.
4. IT COULD HAVE STARRED HARRISON FORD AND ROBERT DE NIRO.
Scorsese asked De Niro to ask Harrison Ford to play Sam. Ford told De Niro he would only be interested in working on the film if he played Cady and De Niro played Sam. De Niro said no to that.
6. REESE WITHERSPOON BLEW HER AUDITION TO PLAY DANIELLE. SO DID DREW BARRYMORE.
“It was my second audition ever,” Witherspoon said in 1999. “My agent told me I’d be meeting Martin Scorsese. I said, ‘Who is he?’ Then he mentioned the name Robert De Niro. I said, ‘Never heard of him.’ When I walked in I did recognize De Niro, and I just lost it. My hand was shaking and I was a blubbering idiot.”
Drew Barrymore auditioned for the role, too, but believed she overacted for one of Scorsese’s assistants. In 2000, she called the audition “the biggest disaster” of her life and said that Scorsese thinks she’s “dog doo-doo” because of it.
Mark of the Vampire (1935) / Z-View
Mark of the Vampire (1935)
Director: Tod Browning
Screenplay: Guy Endore and Bernard Schubert
Stars: Lionel Barrymore, Elizabeth Allan and Bela Lugosi
The Pitch: “Hey, Tod Browning wants to make Mark of the Vampire!”
Tagline: Undead…yet living on the Kisses of Youth!
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Mark of the Vampire had the potential to be a great vampire movie. Tod Browning directing, Bela Lugosi as the vampire with Lionel Barrymore! Mark of the Vampire has mood, setting and starts off with great promise.
Sir Karell Borotin is found dead drained of his blood. All evidence points to a vampire or vampires that must be found and destroyed. The film is off and running and it’s a great experience. There’s a scene with Lugosi changing from a bat to human form and then running down a hall to catch and kill a victim and it’s terrifying!
Then in the last act the film changes gears and becomes a murder mystery with no real vampires! Check out this trivia from IMDB:
The actors all played their roles as though they were in a conventional horror movie, unaware of the twist-ending until the last few days of shooting.Director Tod Browning deliberately kept them in the dark because he wanted authenticity.
When director Tod Browning revealed late in the filming process that the plot dictated that the vampires were really just actors pretending to be vampires, he met with much resistance from the cast and crew. Nobody was more incensed than Bela Lugosi, who pleaded with Browning to let him play a real vampire.
Mark of the Vampire is still worth watching but sadly isn’t near the movie it could have been.
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Congo (1995) / Z-View
Congo (1995)
Director: Frank Marshall
Screenplay: John Patrick Shanley based on the novel by Michael Crichton
Stars: Laura Linney, Tim Curry, Dylan Walsh, Ernie Hudson, Joe Don Baker and Stuart Pankin.
The Pitch: “Hey, let’s turn Michael Crichton’s Congo into a movie!”
Tagline: Where you are the endangered species.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
A ragtag group joins forces in an effort to get into the Congo. Two members are young guys who want to take a gorilla from the US back to her birthplace. The other members are on a search and rescue mission to find what happened to an earlier team that discovered a rare diamond and was wiped out. Neither group was expecting to find killer gorillas.
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Highlander is Coming to IDW!
(Art above by Dan McDaid)
Fans of the movie Highlander will probably want to check out the new series from IDW. Written by novelist Brian Ruckley and art by Andrea Mutti (who did the art below) the series will premiere in 2017.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter.
Executive Action (1973) / Z-View
Executive Action (1973)
Director: David Miller
Screenplay: Dalton Trumbo from a story by Donald Freed and Mark Lane
Stars: Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Will Geer, Ed Lautner and Dick Miller.
The Pitch: “Hey, let’s make a movie on the Kennedy assassination.”
Tagline: Their Goal…Assassination. November 22, 1963…Accomplished!
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Think Oliver Stone’s JFK only not as stylish.
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Ken Meyer Jr.’s Ink Stains 5: Gulacy, Byrne, Vosberg, Trimpe and More!
If you’re a fan of fanzines, then you’ve got to check out Ken Meyer, Jr.’s monthly column Ink Stains. Each month Ken (who is an amazing artist) posts… well, let’s let Ken explain…
I have a collection of over 200 fanzines from the 60’s-80’s that I plan to scan and talk about, one at a time. I hope to have some of the participants answer a few questions. Many of those participants are established comics professionals now, while some have gone on to other things. I will show a few snippets from each zine and give you a link to download a pdf of the whole thing, which I hope all of you will do!
For Ink Stains 5, Ken took a look at CPL #12 from 1975 published by Robert Layton (who later went on to fame as comic book artist, writer and publisher) and edited by Roger Stern (who became a popular comic book writer).
CPL #12 features a beautiful [NSFW] cover by Paul Gulacy, a front piece by Syd Shores, an interview and art from Mike Vosburg, full page pieces from John Byrne and Dennis Fujitake, a humorous centerspread by Herb Trimpe of the Hulk, Steven Grant [who also went on to fame as a writer] comic reviews, a profile of Darkseid by John Byrne and more.
This is the first fanzine that Ken profiled that I actually owned. Ah, the memories of the glory days of fanzines. Thanks to Ken Meyer, Jr. for making these available!
Borderland (2007) / Z-View
Borderland (2007) / Z-View
Director: Zev Berman
Screenplay: Eric Poppen and Zev Berman
Stars: Brian Presley, Jake Muxworthy and Rider Strong
The Pitch: “Hey, let’s make a scary movie”
Tagline: Inspired by a true story.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Three college students head south of the border for a weekend of fun and end up on the wrong side of a Satanic drug-dealing cult.
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Tom Whalen & the World of Alternate Movie Posters!
Today artist Tom Whalen takes us inside the world of creating and collecting alternative movie posters.
House on Haunted Hill (1959) / Z-View
House on Haunted Hill (1959)
Director: William Castle
Screenplay: Robb White
Stars: Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, Richard Long and Elisha Cook, Jr.
The Pitch: “Hey, let’s make a scary movie”
Tagline: First Film With the Amazing New Wonder EMERGO: The Thrills Fly Right Into The Audience!
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Fredrick Loren [Price] offers five people $10,000 to stay the night in a mansion that legend has is haunted. Despite their fears and needing the money, they group is locked in with no way out except death…
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Michael Golden Dr. Strange Commissions!
Michael Golden has four Dr. Strange pieces of art showcased at The Bristol Board… and there’s not a good one in the bunch… they’re all great!
The Haunting (1963) / Z-View
The Haunting (1963)
Director: Robert Wise
Screenplay: Nelson Gidding based on Shirley Jackson‘s novel The Haunting of Hill House
Stars: Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson and Russ Tamblyn.
The Pitch: “Hey, let’s The Haunting of Hill House!”
Tagline: You may not believe in ghosts but you cannot deny terror!
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Dr. Markway [Johnson] and three companions in an effort to prove the existence of ghosts go to Hill House – a remote mansion with a long history of violent deaths.
The Haunting has beautiful cinematography and director Robert Wise builds the tension and terror. While there are a couple of great scares the movie relies on pace and an increasing sense of doom to ramp up the fear factor. They don’t make them like this any more.
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