Frankenstein/Bride of Frankenstein Tonight On the BIG SCREEN...

General General Discussion
21

IIRC Harryhausen was Willis O’Brien’s assistant for a few years. I’ve seen enough movies by either animator to believe (GULP) that Willis O’Brien was in some ways the more talented animator, but he was hampered by more primitive technology in the miniatures. Example: Compare the movements of the T.Rex in King Kong to the T.Rex in Valley of Gwangi. Clearly, Harryhausen’s animation was just a little more crude in subtle ways. Or at least that’s my humble opinion.

Harryhausen got out of the business at the right time, though: Clash of the Titans was both his best and best grossing film. Stop-motion animation was already obsolete and rapidly being replaced with go motion and other computerized techniques.

Harryhausen’s personal favorite was Jason and the Argonauts. I say that Seventh Voyage of Sinbad was underrated. Golden Voyage of Sinbad was okay. Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger was a complete embarassment. Talk about fake! Ever been attacked by a stuffed sabretooth tiger toy? Yes, it looked that bad. Between Eye of the Tiger’s release and Clash of the Titans I really believed Harryhausen was washed up.

(He was, but he had one more good encore in him with Clash).

Jim Danforth did “When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth.” I haven’t seen “When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth” in decades. Maybe I’ll try to find it. I know it was marketed to the “cave girl porn star” set when it came out, but as a six-year old all I wanted was 'all dinosaurs all the time."

22

You may be correct about O’Brien being the more talented, or it could simply be a matter of budget with films like Valley of Gwangi. Harryhausen certainly did an admirable job in Jason and the Sinbad movies you mentioned (I actually have ever Sinbad movie, for Carline Munro and Jane Seymore as much as Harryhausen).

My favorites are actually some of the cheesier films like Earth vs. The Flying Saucers, It Came from Beneath the Sea and 20 Million Miles to Earth. What they lack in sophistication they make up for with fun. And while I liked Clash of the Titans, I think Mighty Joe Young was his best work.

When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth was in many ways better than One Million Years BC (except for Raquel Welch of course), the lizards with glued on horns were a bit much to accept.

23

Twenty Million Miles to Earth was indeed good.

To save money, Harryhausen actually dismantled the Ymir model in order to make the Cyclops in Seventh Voyage of Sinbad.

I was disappointed in Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and First Men in the Moon. I think that’s why I never saw Mighty Joe Young or It Came from Beneath the Sea. Mysterious Island had some decent critters, but it wasn’t a ‘Tier 1’ Harryhausen movie, either.

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers was okay, but hardly Harryhausen’s forte.

George Pal’s War of the Worlds kind of makes all the other '50’s alien invasion movies unnecessary IMHO.

I think Harryhausen’s best movies were the sword and sorcery fantasies (except Eye of the Tiger of course). Gwangi and One Million Years B.C. are the two best ones outside that genre IMHO.

Gwangi was actually a Willis O’brien project, but by then he had become more interested in watching bullfights in Mexico than in working. If you dissect the basic story, it’s primarily King Kong moved to Mexico with a dinosaur instead of an ape. You know: creature discovered in hidden wilderness, creature captured by men wanting to make money on it, creature escapes while in captivity, creature has to be cornered and killed…

Willis O’Brien did at least a handful of “dinosaurs and cowboys” movies IIRC, or some of his projects went to other people like Gwangi did. The Ghost of Slumber Mountain is almost forgotten now, and for good reason. I don’t think the dinosaur even appears in the first half of the movie. The basic plot is that a T.Rex somehow survived in the badlands of somewhere and it kept eating ranchers’ cattle or some horseshit.

If you want to check out an obscure but really quite good Willis O’Brien film, find The Black Scorpion. Again, it’s prehistoric critters/cowboys/Mexico, but it’s well made and really creepy.

Dang. You’re making me want to go out and find all those flicks on DVD while I still can. Right now all I have from that era is War of the Worlds.

24

I’m stunned that you never saw Mighty Joe Young.

I’d strongly disagree. The Day the Earth Stood Still and The Thing From Another World immediately come to mind. Hell even This Island Earth was pretty good for the time.

I actually have The Black Scorpion on DVD as well as most of Harryhausens movies.

It’s also hard to make an “original” movie with dinosaurs, sword and sorcery offers you a lot more storyline options. Jurassic Park was pretty much the first original dinosaur movie concept since the The Lost World (1925). It’s a tremendously fun genre but like with vampires it’s hard to do something truly original.

25

All good movies…

It’s been so long since I saw This Island Earth that I don’t remember too much about it.

THEM just missed being great. They should have used stop motion for the ants. The movie had plenty of suspense, though.

Maybe they should have done it like Cloverfield: where you just barely get one short glimpse of the monster in the entire movie.

26

Worked for Forbidden Planet.

However I think it was a colossal failure for Cloverfield. That one needed more special effects monster and the elimination of the Blair Witch shaky cam.

27

Best way to watch it today is Mystery Science Theater 3000 - The Movie.

28

I actually agree on thge mythology, the film was interesting in that regard. It’s actually been kind of a while since I’ve seen it, so I don’t remember the wolf that much other than I liked it. I just thought the movie in general was fun to watch, because some stuff was genuinly interesting and really well done, and other stuff was awful to the point of hilarity.

I’m assuming the 1918 Kong is a typo as the1933 original was the first to the best of my research. Especially since Wallace wrote the first draft from 1931-1932.

Not a typo. There was a Japanese version put together in 1918, and from what I can recall it only played in theaters for like a year, and all the copies either got lost, or were destroyed in some way. I’ll try to find images or something and post 'em. But so far Google hasn’t turned up much. All I could find were still pictures of the original film anyway. (Which is weird because in some frames King Kong was gigantic, and in other images he was barely taller than a normal man. I always wondered why it was like that…)

Curious what pre Nosferatu vampire movie you are referencing as well.

If you wanna be really technical the first horror movie/vampire movie ever is The Devil’s Castle by Gorges Melie in 1897…

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1213033/

But the movie I was referring to is The Vampire (1913)…

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0003499/

I actually thought that imdb didn’t have a profile on it for a minute.

There’s also the first Dracula movie ever Dracula’s Death in 1921 (a year before Nosferatu)…

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0240464/

However, one of my favorite horror movies is Universal’s The Cat Creeps (1946). It’s also worth noting the the 1930 version is a lost film.

I love old, obscures (especially those once considered lost). Even though they are usually pretty crappy, I still love to add films like the 1910 Edison Frankenstein to my collection.

I didn’t know there was a 1910 version of Frankenstein. I actually thought that Life Without Soul (1913 I think) was the first.

The holy grail of course would be London After Midnight (1927) even though it was actually a pretty terrible movie. Tod Browning would later remake it as Mark of the Vampire (1935). And I’m aware of the still picture restoration but it isn’t quite the same.

Isn’t Mark of the Vampire a lost film too? Because I’ve never been able to track it down, but hella people have told me they’ve seen it, while others have said that no copies exist… :expressionless:

I’ve been wanting to add it to my collection for a while.

And that is what makes Universal classics so great. They weren’t overly simplistic with template characters. It’s what allows them to remain interesting as one grows older and from generation to generation.

I agree 100%. Too bad horror films now rely too much on loud noises, and/or gore to scare you. (Even if some of them ARE good. Hostel for example…)

29

Sure it wasn’t this one?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasei_Kingu_Kongu

Just curious if that is a true “vampire” movie (undead feeding off of the blood of the living) or one of the many “vamp” theme films (dangerous woman leads man astray) so popular at the time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison_Frankenstein

http://www.amazon.com/Hollywoods-Legends-Horror-Collection-Vampire/dp/B000GRUQJW/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1351310182&sr=1-1&keywords=mark+of+the+vampire

While I can agree that Hostel was a well made and original concept film I personally didn’t care for it. I don’t enjoy the mix of eroticism with violence and gore, same thing that keeps me from truly appreciating many of the slasher films in my collection that I only have because I’m a fan of a particular actress.

30

Oh, I suck. That’s totally what I was talking about. I dunno where I got 1918 from. Lol. That’s why I wasn’t finding any results.

Just curious if that is a true “vampire” movie (undead feeding off of the blood of the living) or one of the many “vamp” theme films (dangerous woman leads man astray) so popular at the time.

I think “The Vampire” (1913) was. But The Devils Castle I think was a true vampire film.

http://www.amazon.com/Hollywoods-Legends-Horror-Collection-Vampire/dp/B000GRUQJW/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1351310182&sr=1-1&keywords=mark+of+the+vampire

Wow. I suck. I never thought to look there…

While I can agree that Hostel was a well made and original concept film I personally didn’t care for it. I don’t enjoy the mix of eroticism with violence and gore, same thing that keeps me from truly appreciating many of the slasher films in my collection that I only have because I’m a fan of a particular actress.

I can understand that. I personally think that when done correctly sex, and violence go together quite well. But on film, it’s extremely easy to fuck it up. Eli Roth is good at creating a good balance, and some say that Hostel did for Hostels what Jaws did for beaches.

31

I don’t object to the simple mix of the two, it’s when one or both are excessive. Basically I don’t want slasher porn.

I have no problem with Friday the 13th because it doesn’t give me an erection.

I have no problem with Secrets of a Chambermaid and I Like To Play Games because they are supposed to give you an erection.

The problem for me is having an erection and then you suddenly start hacking people up, my erection really doesn’t appreciate that. Some things you just don’t combine, like eating hotdogs and watching porn.

32

That’s awesome. Frankenstein meets the wolf man was my favorite. I’d love to see that at a drive in.

33

That was a very honest assessment of what is wrong with many new horror films. I have unknowingly rented several movies that would warrant an FBI red flag/watch list for anyone who rents them more than once.

34

Not a bad film and certainly one of the better monster combination films that would eventually kill the franchise finally reducing them all to meetings with Abott and Costello (which in actuality weren’t bad films either, just no longer treated seriously).

Bela Lugosi did an acceptable job as The Monster (certainly much better than Glenn Strange in the various “House of…” monster films.

But I think my favorite sequel (if you accept Bride as a classic in it’s own right and not simply Frankenstein Part II) is Son of Frankenstein (1939). Although it suffers from the same problem as parts of “Bride of Frankenstein” in that it’s almost impossible not to see Young Frankenstein during certain scenes. Perhaps Mel Brooks finest hour.

35

Quite honestly, I never understood the logic of killing the “hot, slutty chick” in slasher movies. There is something very wrong with anyone who wants to see the “hot, slutty chick” get killed. Those 80s slasher movies would be a lot more fun if they killed “the ugly bitchy chick.”

As for modern gore films like Saw and the rest, it really isn’t my thing anyway. Seeing the original Texas Chainsaw as a kid pretty much took care of all of my “body parts” wants and needs for life. I thought Saw was boring and stupid, and worst of all the producers thought it was brilliant and clever, and it got worse from there.

Hostel was actually well thought out and executed (if you’ll forgive the pun) but just wasn’t my thing for all the reasons stated. I’d much rather spend my time watching early Andrew Blake films, I never get tired of watching Aria, Pinups or Playthings.

36

That has always been an odd thing to me, and it isn’t new. Even in the old Bond films, if you saw a hot girl you knew she was probably going to be killed. All of the hot slutty Bond girls died bad deaths. While not as violent, the motivation of the film makers seems the same.

37

I’ve always been a big Lon Chaney Jr. as the Wolf Man fan, so it’s hard for a movie with him to be bad in my mind. The original Creature FTBL will always be my all time favorite because it combined my two favorite genres; jungle adventure and horror.

38

The new Bond girl in Skyfall is hott as fuck. Let’s hope she isn’t added to the body count.

Unless she turns out to be a villain…

39

Both girls are super hot from a little Google. The hot white chick is not his main sidekick. Bet you a Pmag that Bond nails her, then the master villain kills her for betraying him. These films have become somewhat predictable.

40

I think in Bond films it served two purposes. One to demonstrate the brutality of the adversary Bond was up against and two, to serve as a moral motivator for Bond to defeat his adversary.

With slasher movies the motivation seems to be much different. It is already well established that the slasher is beyond brutal and it really doesn’t serve to motivate a hero (the boyfriends of anyone rarely survive). It seems very much like punishment for being sexually attractive or sexually active in almost every case.

I always got the impression that the people who made these movies and the people who got off on them were losers in life who never “got the girl” and this is their way of getting even with them vicariously.