The Bloody Pit

140 - FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN (1943)

Troy and I rejoin the Universal Horror Films of the 1940’s, already in progress. 

With FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN (1943) Universal’s monster films took off in a radical and cinema altering direction. For the first time the studio combined characters from two different series into one new story regardless of the things that have to be ignored to make this work. In what decade are we supposed to think this movie is happening? It’s a sequel to THE WOLF MAN (1941) which took place firmly in the 1940’s but it’s also a sequel to THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN (1942) which seemed to be happening in the early 1900’s. And dialog clearly states here that four years have passed since Larry Talbot was killed by his father, so mid-1940’s would seem to be accurate. But everything feels like WWI never occurred and certainly like WWII wasn’t a factor in anyone’s thinking. Welcome to the alternative world of Universal Land where several European decades are mashed together with bits taken from any time and place to create a habitat where monsters can come together to work toward shared goals. And then try to kill each other! 

We plunge immediately into our long-awaited discussion of this classic, pulling on every loose plot string we can find and marveling at the bizarre changes from the previous movies. Was the last film’s finale set in a modern hospital or an ancient ancestral castle? Who cares! We just need to get a massive amount of dynamite into the hands of the local hot-headed pub owner so we can drown everyone and a castle looks much cooler being ripped apart by water. Fire last time so water this time! How did they never end one of these movies using an earthquake? It seems like the obvious next step. And then a tornado. But, I digress.

 
In just under two hours we talk about the fine cast, the wonderful atmosphere, the decision to edit out all of Bela Lugosi’s dialog and some subtle moments that are often overlooked even by fans. To us it seems clear that the written work of Doctor Frankenstein must be destroyed if for no other reason that it has the power to turn even most mild-mannered physician into a mad scientist. I mean, damn! Has there ever been a faster turn to the dark side than Dr. Mannering? Were there any warning signs at all?

 
We hope you enjoy the show and thebloodypit@gmail.com is how we can be contacted. The next film in this series is another Sherlock adventure and we’ll have a new NaschyCast episode up soon too. Thanks for listening. 

139 - EVILSPEAK (1981)

I am joined by John Hudson and Bobby Hazzard to discuss another strange horror film from the 1980’s.

 
EVILSPEAK (1981) is an independently made supernatural tale of teenage bullies and the righteous revenge eventually visited upon them. It introduces us to poor charity case Stanley Coopersmith (the great Clint Howard) attending a California military academy where he is the target of verbal and physical abuse from most of his classmates. Oddly, he is also insulted and demeaned by the faculty as if he is somehow repulsive to their vision of who should be allowed in this school. What is a miserable misfit to do? Of course, any and all similarities to CARRIE (1976) are completely on purpose. But is it any good?

 
John Hudson makes his case for this often-maligned horror movie with more than a little pushback from the rest of us. We all agree that the film is character actor heaven with R. G. Armstrong, Richard Moll, Claude Earl Jones, Charles Tyner, Joe Cortese and Hamilton Camp lending their skills to the slow destruction of Clint Howard’s sad loser, Coopersmith. But the film has a number of points of interest beyond the cast. For cinephiles curious about movies that present early 80’s computers being used to accidentally invoke a centuries dead Spanish Satanic monk so that hell on earth can be unleashed – this is your film! If you have ever wondered what an attack of satanic pigs erupting from the netherworld would look like – this is your film! If the sight of a sweaty Clint Howard makes you happy – this is your film! If you are working your way through a list of the British Video Nasties – this is one you have to see. And if you are curious to see what one million dollars and a three-week shooting schedule can give you in 1981 – here you are! We can’t promise a smooth ride or that you won’t spot the flying-harness wires but we do all agree that the pig and sword violence infused finale is well worth seeing. It’s debatable that this is good, but it certainly is EVILSPEAK good!

 
If you have any comments or concerns for our sanity thebloodypit@gmail.com is the address. Let know what you think! We’ll veer back into covering European films shot in America next time out. 

138 - Creepy Sherlock Radio!

For your October listening pleasure here are a couple of spooky Sherlock Holmes radio tales!

 
Beth has chosen these two as representative of the scary end of the classic radio format featuring the great detective. The first is from the 1940’s and is titles The Adventure of the Carpathian Horror so you know it’s going to be fun – with a splash of vampires! It has Nigel Bruce continuing his run as Dr. Watson and Tom Conway taking over from Basil Rathbone as Holmes. The second features Kevin McCarthy in the role for the CBS Mystery Theater and was originally broadcast in 1977. I think it is a solid version of that tale of a spectral hound! You know – the one that haunts the Baskervilles. I’ve edited out most of the commercials from the show but I left in one to give you a taste of what radio sounded like in the late 1970’s. Forgive me!

 
If you have any comments or suggestions thebloodypit@gmail.com is the address to which you can send them. We’d be glad to hear from you! 

#137 - SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE SECRET WEAPON (1943)

Join Troy, Beth and I as we check out the second of Universal’s Sherlock Holmes adventures. 

SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE SECRET WEAPON (1943) is - as you might have guessed – another World War II tale full of intrigue and subterfuge. The story allows spy-master Holmes the chance for a few interesting disguises and the opportunity to match wits with his long-time rival Professor Moriarty! It seems that the Napoleon of Crime has hatched a plan to profit from the war regardless of the damage it will do to good old England. Is there nothing that villainous snake won’t get up to in his quest for monetary gain? Surely it is time to put an end to his nefarious plots. 

We dig into the film to examine the success the studio had converting the Victorian detective to a soldier in the fight against the Nazi. I have been reading two books that focus in different ways on this series and use them to broaden our discussion a bit. Amanda Field’s ‘England’s Secret Weapon’ is especially interesting, pointing us toward several topics that lurk under the surface of these fast, entertaining movies. We are repeatedly brought back to how fascinating it is to watch these movies with the knowledge that the filmmakers had no way to know how this devastating war would turn out or how dark the future might be. Of course, that doesn’t keep us from babbling praise for the fine actors including our last chance to see Basil Rathbone and Lionel Atwill paired together onscreen. What we wouldn’t give to have seen many more. 
As you might expect, our love for the movie doesn’t keep us from cracking a few jokes including our alternate title of SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE DANGEROUS PUB CRAWL. When you go hunting for Moriarty in London during the Blitz you end up doing some risky things! Thank goodness for Watson. 

If you have any Holmesian comments or suggestions thebloodypit@gmail.com is the place to send them. 

136 - FRANKENSTEIN AND ME (1996)

In this episode I welcome filmmaker Robert Tinnell and film historian Anthony Taylor to the podcast for a discussion of the 1996 movie FRANKENSTEIN AND ME, which was conceived and directed by Mr. Tinnell. The film is a funny, touching tale of a young monster obsessed kid with an active imagination and what happens when he accidentally gets his hands on the real Frankenstein Monster! Having the movie’s writer/director along makes for a different kind of show! 

We dig into Bob’s inspiration for the film’s story including his childhood monster fandom and his dreams as a young director. The production of FRANKENSTEIN AND ME is examined as well as the original version of the story and the freewheeling times in which an independent Canadian film like this could come together. We talk about the great cast that includes Burt Reynolds, Louise Fletcher and the first film role for a teenaged Ryan Gosling. The conversation turns into what you might find after hours in the bar at a monster movie convention with topics such as Robert McCammon’s novel ‘Boy’s Life’, the writing skill of Peter Straub and the joys of comic books as a medium. We dart off onto several barely related tangents with one of the most satisfying being our mutual love of the DVD of Monster Kid Home Movies put together by the great Joe Busam.  That collection of Super 8 homemade films of Monster Kids showcasing the mad energy of the childhood creative impulse shows the clear beginnings of Bob Tinnell’s path to this film. And finally, we discuss the fact that the film has never been released on DVD or Blu-Ray and the possibilities of that happening one day soon.

 
If you have any questions or comments thebloodypit@gmail.com is the place to send them. We’ll be thrilled to hear from you. Thanks for listening to the show! 

135 - WILD WILD PLANET (1966)

I have talked about this film on many occasions and on several different podcasts but never on my own show. After all, there are hundreds of films I want to discuss and this one has had some attention around the podcasting dial.  But Mark Maddox loves this one almost as much as I do so he insisted that we make time to praise it as it deserves! Who am I say no? 

We start by relating our history with WILD, WILD PLAMET (1966) and first impressions from our younger days. After some fumbling with the titles of the other three Gamma One films, we talk about the relative merits of the various Antonio Margheriti science fiction films and even loop in THE GREEN SLIME. Part of the discussions revolves around the character stereotypes that the film uses and what they represent both as tropes and storytelling shortcuts. Mark makes note of a 1960’s German television series (Raumpatrouille – Die phantastischen Abenteuer des Raumschiffes Orion - literal translation: “Space Patrol – The Fantastic Adventures of the Spaceship Orion”) that reminds him of some of the better attributes of space opera stories and this film too. I have to find English subtitled versions of that show!

 
The film’s strong body horror elements are put under the microscope as we relate it to the public fascination with the then emergent field of organ transplantation. This leads us into dissections of several of the special effects and especially the variable quality of the miniatures. Fire gives the game away nearly every time! And then we point out the several threads the movie leaves dangling including the fate of the room of mad scientist experimental mistakes. Were they drowned in the blood flood? We may never know. 

If you have any questions or comments thebloodypit@gmail.com is the podcast’s email address. Thank you for listening! 

134 - 1941 (1979)

We don’t cover many comedies on The Bloody Pit for various reasons but 1941 (1979) ticks off many boxes for genre fans that makes it nearly perfect for discussion. Toshiro Mifune and Christopher Lee as bickering military leaders trapped together in a submarine? Is this a humorous variation on HELL IN THE PACFIC (1968) hiding in plain sight? 

Mark Maddox joins me to dig into our mutual fascination with this much criticized epic of American madness and wartime paranoia. Told before production that they should make a serious World War II film on the subject instead of a comedy, Spielberg and his team forged ahead with their warped vision of post-Pearl Harbor attack fears. It’s an ambitious tale with dozens of characters and multiple storylines that slowly escalates into a long December night of chaos and violence. I’m sure that a serious movie about this historical incident could be made but I’m so glad that this farce exists in its place. 1941 is one of my favorite comedies of all time and I never cease to laugh at the insanity every time I watch it. 

Using the sprawling template of IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD (1964) we are given a scenario ripe with potential sparks while the plot scatters metaphorical open barrels of gasoline around to how they explode in flames. Combining oddball comedic characters with characters that are taking the spiraling events seriously keeps the entire affair grounded enough to seem believable and suspenseful enough to be thrilling. The nutty folks’ antics never overpower the forward momentum of the wild story even in the extended version of the film that Mark and I discuss. We talk about our first encounters with the film, its effect on us at the time and how popular opinion of it has changed over the years. We dig into the huge cast of amazing actors and debate some of the performances. The topic of the John Williams score is broached with a snippet or two of the music inserted into the show and we marvel at the amazing miniature work in the film’s climax. We do get off-track at least once trying to decide what Spielberg’s worst movie might be. As usual, Mark is wrong! 

If you know which Spielberg film is the weakest the email address is thebloodypit@gmail.com where we’d love to hear from you. And if you think Mark and I should just bash in each other’s heads and call it a day – let us know that too! Thanks for listening to the show. 

133 - NIGHT MONSTER (1942)

Troy Guinn and I jump back to the 1940’s for our next Universal horror film of that decade. 

NIGHT MONSTER (1942) has two ‘horror stars’ first billed in the credits – Bela Lugosi and Lionel Atwill – leading first time viewers to expect them to feature heavily in the scary tale being told. But both actors are relegated to supporting roles which gives unexpected players the chance to step forward and take the position of possible villain. This sidelining of Lugosi and Atwill has been cited for years as the reason this is less well known than it might otherwise be, but I would argue the opposite should be true. By allowing actors not usually associated with the genre to step forward and take on the prime roles NIGHT MONSTER becomes a rare thing in Universal’s horror output on the 40’s – a real mystery! And, to make it more impressive, the film attempts to create an entirely new screen monster that the studio could have used in the future. That the choice was made to continue producing Frankenstein, Dracula and Mummy sequels probably speaks more to making safe money decisions than to a desire for new, creative monsters and that is a shame. 

We enthusiastically dive into this film asking all the usual questions horror movie fans have posited for decades. We don’t have all the answers but we do have some solid speculation and a few guesses. We remark on the casting choices including having a female doctor play such a prominent role. The treatment of Hindu mysticism in the story without the expected condescension for such ‘foreign’ religions is surprising, as is the relatively adult tone of the entire affair. The film strikes a more modern attitude in several ways even if it still seems to take place in a time oddly unaware of the then current war. We also note that the film seems to drop at least one character (Lugosi’s!) from the finale without ever letting us know if he was complicit in the crimes taking place in and around the crazy old dark house. The oddest point in the show might be when I conjure a fictious Three Dog Night song out of thin air leaving only a little blood on the floor! 

If you have any comments or questions about the show thebloodypit@gmail.com is the email account and we’d love to hear from you. Thank you for listening to the show! 

132 - AMERICAN RICKSHAW (1989)

John Hudson and the mighty Bobby Hazzard return to discuss this late 80’s mystical mystery filmed in Miami.

Directed by Sergio Martino, AMERICAN RICKSHAW (1989) surely would not be nearly as entertaining or as coherent if it had been handled by someone with less experience behind the camera. Juggling enough disparate elements for two movies Martino somehow makes it all come together in a mad mishmash of sex criminals, televangelists, magical fires, mysterious ladies and the stolen pig idol that starts the whole crazed affair. Along the way we are witness to Donald Pleasence drifting in and out of a Southern American accent which might be worth the price of the Blu-Ray all on its own. Our hero is played by Olympian Mitch Gaylord and, for some reason, his performance gets better the more unshaven and sweatier he becomes. Maybe desperation breeds more believable acting in professional athletes?

Our conversation meanders all over the film and its various strange elements as we attempt to come to grips with the way that the plot is both insane and – eventually – straightforward. Of course, it is impossible from the start to realize that this tale of a poor college student working as a rickshaw driver in Miami will transform into the endgame of a decades long mystic war between rival sorcerers so I think it is understandable that we can’t maintain a straight-line plot discussion. In fact, it might just be impossible to talk about AMERICAN RICKSHAW in a completely linear fashion. There are simply too many things going on all at the same time! Luckily, I think we only lose track of what we’re doing a couple of times with the worst moment being when we are nearly derailed by tales of small-town strip clubs. And Hudson is still obsessed with transparent simians. Of course.

If you have any comments or questions thebloodypit@gmail.com is the email address where notes or recordings can be sent. Thank you for listening to the show and please let others know if you enjoy what we do here.

131 - THE MUMMY'S TOMB (1942)

Troy and I return to the Mummy movies made by Universal Studios in the 1940’s.

 
THE MUMMY’S TOMB (1942) has always been the film in this series that is the easiest to dump on. It begins with almost ten minutes of flashback footage from the previous movie THE MUMMY’S HAND (1940) and with a running time that barely breaks the one-hour mark it is one of the shortest features Universal ever released. Add to the film’s perceived crimes the decision to advance the story thirty years and bump off the first film’s cast and you have the foundation of decades of fan sneering. But is this film truly as bereft of horror thrills or as ridiculous as the carping has claimed? A deeper look may reveal some hidden qualities. 

In this episode Troy and I follow Kharis through his change of actor and his change of address to Middleton, USA as the undead Egyptian monster stalks those who dared to violate the tomb of Ananka. We talk about the addition of Lon Chaney to the cast, the mysterious survival of the previous film’s High Priest and the fact that the 1970’s look a lot like the 1940’s. We use Thomas Feramisco’s book The Mummy Unwrapped to explore the alterations made from script to screen complete with the details of a few choice bits that should have been left in the film. I lay out my preferred version of this story and we discuss how some of the changes make for a less involving return for the characters. I think longtime listeners will be shocked by our final assessment of this entry as well as our ratings near the end. 

We are joined by Beth in the final show segment for some feedback about our recent Sherlock Holmes episodes. It seems that some radio shows are not so accurate in their geological descriptions of England! And then we wrap the episode with a song from Nashville’s amazing punk band Peachy, giving us a blast of rock coolness for the summer.