ANDY FISH

ANDY FISH is a comic book artist

Monday, October 10, 2011

Movies this week...

Mondays in October seem to be the night to sit in front of TCM;
Tonight at 8pm is THE WOLFMAN (1941) which cemented Lon Chaney Jr as Lon Chaney, making him Universal's King of Horror films.  It's a B picture with an A cast and very entertaining.  You'll even look past the idea that Claude Rains could possibly be Lon Chaney's dad, interesting casting, but maybe his mom was a big woman.

Following that is THE UNIVITED (1944) which is a tight little ghost thriller with Ray Milland-- guaranteed to give you some goose bumps.

At 11pm is DEAD OF NIGHT (1945) which is a british anthology film that is legendary for being frightening-- I've seen about half of it several times and can't attest to any frights, but it's reputation is big enough for me to give it due.

You may want to call in sick tomorrow-- because at 1am starts a triple feature of Val Lewton's 40s horror films starting with I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943) with Tom Conway followed by CAT PEOPLE (1942) and then CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE and the night wraps up with THE DEVIL BAT (1940) which every faithful reader of this blog knows is one of my TOP FIVE bad movie favorites.   Bela Lugosi chews up the scenery as family practioner/chemist/cologne developer who decides to wreak vengeance on his employer who seems to want to make him employee of the year.  It doesn't make any sense, but it's entertaining as hell and at 5am I have to imagine this will be pee yourself with laughter funny.

Wednesday night at 12:15 is a great little Veronica Lake/Alan Ladd film THE GLASS KEY (1942).  The pair made a number of early film noir's together and this one is my favorite of the lot.

Saturday at Noon is TARZAN GOES TO INDIA (1962) which is an underrated entry in the long running series but the one that is possibly the most faithful depiction of Edgar Rice Burroughs ape-man.  In the books Tarzan is not only literate, he's a British Lord-- the grunting version is all Hollywood and for this movie, filmed on location, features the debut of Jock Mahoney as Tarzan.  Unlike the muscle bound actors who had played the character before this, Mahoney was lean which is how Burroughs pictured his character.

Turner seems to be running the Tarzan films in order, which means we might get to the James Bond-ish version of the character in a few more films featuring Mike Henry.  I'll let you know if that happens.

Today's our anniversary-- so I'm taking the day off and spending it with my lovely wife.