Blind Date (1984) - Soundtrack

This release being a part of Varèse Sarabande’s limited LP to CD series is the how and why of it becoming part of my collection. There is no other reason for me to have it. 

Although Stanley Myers composed the scores for numerous films, his was a name I neither knew or recognized when this disc first arrived in the mail. The same goes for John Kongos, who supplied the rather bland and forgettable pop songs intermixed with Myers's electronic score.

Writer-director Nico Mastorakis has made numerous films, some of which I have heard of and one that I have actually seen. The former includes the Mykonos set Island of Death (1976), while the latter would be Rifftrax's treatment of Nightmare at Noon (1988). That latter also being a baldfaced imitation/remake of George A. Romero's The Crazies and/or Graham Baker's Impulse (1984). 

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Trading Card #33

Tree of Rocks

After a day of difficult off-trail hiking, Heather and her crew finally arrived at their objective. "This is like an Indian burial ground," offered Joshua, taking in the bizarre sight of the primitive cemetery. There were several piles of rocks ritualistically arranged on the ground and in the trees. Heather tried to remember what Mary Brown had said about the significance of these Paganistic rock piles, recalling that they were mentioned in the Bible. 

The Birds (1963) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - March 31, 1963

Alien (1979) - Trading Card #30

 

Willard (2003) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - March 14, 2003

Although broadcasts of the original Willard (1971) were a television viewing staple of my childhood and early adolescence, I have yet to watch its 2003 remake. There are a variety of reasons and excuses for my avoiding it. The most current one is what happens to that poor cat. The first Willard (Bruce Davison) at least had the decency to take the one he got to a shelter.

Black Scorpion (1995) - Soundtrack

Soundtrack for a movie I have not seen, despite its subject matter and being a Roger Corman production placing it well within my sphere of interest. Just another one of a woefully countless number of movies, shows, books, and whatnot that, for whatever reason, I have overlooked or missed out on. So it goes.

Although the film itself is described as a "superhero comedy in the erotic thriller variety" in Randall D. Larson's liner notes, Kevin Kiner's score is rather straight forward "in the manner of a standard detective thriller." There are no cartoonish embellishments or flourishes knocking and pinging about here. An approach that I appreciate.

I also feel the need to point out that, while this is the soundtrack for the first Black Scorpion outing, the artwork used is from the film's sequel, Black Scorpion II: Aftershock (1997).

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Trading Card #32

Rough Terrain

The three filmmakers had to carefully make their way up rocky hills and through dense foliage, a task made infinitely more difficult by the clumsy backpacks and heavy equipment they were carrying. Crossing streams by cautiously walking across logs was especially hazardous. "If I never cross another stream on a log for the rest of my life, I will die a happy girl," Heather commented after several crossings.

Copying the above text from the back of the card brought to mind something I learned in a Celtic Literature course and that lodged in my own creative and critical DNA. That bodies of water are considered pathways or borders to the region of the dead. If you are near a body of water, or if you cross a river or stream, you are entering the realm of the dead...

Friday the 13th Midnite Jinx Show(s) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - March 13, 1953

March 13th fell on a Friday in 1953 and, once again, the Fox West Coast Theaters held a bunch of Friday the 13th-themed Midnite Jinx Shows throughout the East Bay. Just as they done the previous month, when February 13th had also fallen on a Friday. What did they show?

Kind of hard to say, this time. When I checked the listings for the California, the Fox, the Grand, and the Senator theaters, the only information given was: "Chills! Thrills! Gifts and Surprises on Stage and Screen." Okay.

A small blurb for the event did say that, "Learned masters of ceremonies (or jinx hosts) will inform patrons of such facts as those pertaining to Woodrow Wilson who was born the 13th, married on the 13th and has 13 letters to his name; that stars such as Kay Francis, Judith Evelyn, Sidney Blackmer and many more were born on the 13th and that drama critics will not be in the audience."

Oakland Tribune - March 13, 1953

A second ad, on the same page, states that the Friday the 13th Midnite Jinx Show at the Grand Lake will be showing a double-bill of The Walking Dead, starring Bela Lugosi, and Terror House (1942), starring James Mason. 

Although I suspect that the Bela Lugosi feature is retitled film, I could not (at time of writing) find any information about it. So it goes.

Oakland Tribune - March 13, 1953

A third and final ad, again on the same page, hypes a double-bill of the melodramas Tower of London (1939) and The Man Who Reclaimed His Head (1934). Russ Byrd returns as Master of Ceremonies, with Tiny James once again at the organ keyboard.

Alien (1979) - Trading Card #29

After various difficulties, the "Nostromo Tug" sets down on the mysterious world from where bizarre alien messages are originating.

A poster version of this image was in an Alien Poster Magazine that I bought. It hung in my bedroom for an indeterminate amount of time.

The Beast Within (1982) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - March 12, 1982

If the jumbled memories of my troubled adolescence are in anyway accurate, I would have read Edward Levy's novel The Beast Within in October or November of 1981. The film adaptation, which I remember reading about in Fangoria magazine (maybe issue #13, but definitely issue #15), was something that I looked forward to seeing.

Which is how and why I have come to know just how jumbled and co-mingled my memories of this time period have become.

You see, The Beast Within opened in theaters in and around the San Francisco Bay Area on March 12, 1982. But I know I saw The Beast Within on a double-bill with Night Warning (aka Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker) at the Southshore Twin Cinema in Alameda.

Yet, when I went through the local listings to find that double-bill in the newspaper archive, I could not find it. The Beast Within did not play at the Southshore Twin Cinema in 1982. But I also remember it feeling as if it had taken an eternity for me to be able to see The Beast Within on the big screen.

Turns out that double-bill of The Beast Within and Night Warning opened on Friday, January 7, 1983 and played for all of a week. Which means I probably saw it on the night of the 7th, 8th, or 9th. But I was certain it had to have been in the summer or fall of 1982, not the winter of 1983. Hell, it might have been on home video by then, because I remember watching it as a VHS rental at one point.

Another thing I remember is there being a rather raucous crowd in attendance at the Southshore Twin. There was plenty of jeering, laughing, and talkback throughout both movies. But the biggest laugh came during the "tragic" ending of The Beast Within, when some doofus in the back shouted, "He couldn't handle it!"

No spoilers, but if you have seen the movie, I think you can figure out just what moment that was that I am talking about here...

The Black Hole (1979) - Soundtrack

While the original soundtrack album was a suitable digital download for me, I was ecstatic at the opportunity to upgrade to this CD of the complete score.

Jeff Bond's liner notes describe John Barry's music for The Black Hole as one of the storied composer's "most unusual and audacious" scores. 

One example given is the film's main title, "a strange, dizzying piece," Bond writes, "half-waltz, half death-march, driven by a swirling ostinato for synthesizer." It was that particular ostinato (a repeated musical phrase or rhythm) that compelled me to add the score to my collection.

Something The Black Hole shares with other science fiction soundtracks of the time period is its utilization of a device known as The Blaster Beam. The Beam's distinct, ominous rattle punctuates the ending of the film's overture, which audiences may or may not have heard prior to the film's start. It is put to effective and evocative use in the film itself during the track That's It.

Another choice example of a great score for a less than great, but not that bad, movie.

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Trading Card #31

Mike's Anxiety

"I'll tell you the truth," admitted Mike as he stared at Heather's map of the area. "This is like... Greek to me. It's useless. So I'm just putting my trust in you, that you know where (the cemetery) is..." Heather seemed comfortable with that, but Mike felt compelled to add: "Although, I gotta tell you... I don't fully trust you." Still unflappable at this stage, Heather assured her pensive teammate that "we'll all look back at this and laugh heartily."

NARRATOR: They would not not look back at this and laugh heartily...

Atragon [Kaitei Gunkan] (1963) / The Witch's Curse [Maciste all'inferno] (1962) / Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - March 11, 1965

Now this my kind of triple feature.

First we have Atragon, a colorful and exciting Japanese science-fantasy undersea adventure that features a submarine that can also fly. Next up is The Witch's Curse, an Italian peplum that sends strongman Maciste into Hell itself, so he can lift the titular curse from a long-suffering Scottish village.

Last, but in no way least, is Two Thousand Maniacs! The story of a Southern town celebrating its Centennial by slaughtering wayward tourists from the North. This would be the first Herschell Gordon Lewis movie I was able to see (when it was released on home video, way back in 1982) and remains my favorite to this day.

This triple bill really is a cinematic banana split of 1960's genre staples. It is perfect. No notes.

Alien (1979) - Trading Card #28

 

Night of the Living Dead (1968) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - March 10, 1973

Here's a midnight show I would have loved to been able to see. Too bad I was only 5 years old at the time, not living in San Francisco, and Night of the Living Dead was a verboten film... again, at that time.

Sixteen years later I was living in San Francisco and I did see both Leviathan (1989) and, later that same year, Licence to Kill (1989) at the Presidio. So there.

Leatherface - A 1000 piece puzzle from Trick or Treat Studios

Dan Da Dan, Vol. 1 - Review

An impulsive act of kindness by Momo Ayase kickstarts a friendship that, in turn, 'arouses' all manner of excitable and dangerous paranormal entities. 

How's that for an elevator pitch?

When I try and take a moment to gather my thoughts to write this review, I just start chuckling. I also roll my eyes. Because that is the overall effect this first volume of Dan Da Dan, or Dandadan, had on me. I chuckled, rolled my eyes, and enjoyed the hell out of most of it.

I also need to admit that I struggled with both the sophomoric sexual humor and almost lackadaisical approach to sexual violation and/or assault displayed in the opening chapter(s). That did not sit well with me, at all.

But as the story progressed, the Victoria's Secret level imagery combined with some otherworldly phenomena that managed too illicit some genuine chills. Then there was all that cute and combative banter between Momo and the friend she calls Okarun (for a reason best left unspoiled for those that have yet to read Dan Da Dan).

Perhaps, maybe, this is all meant to dramatize, or satirize, the tumultuous nature of youthful attraction to somebody that seems, at first glance, to be so-not-your type. Yet attracted you are and, no matter how hard you try to stop it, that attraction just wants to grow stronger.

On the less heavy-handed side of my critical read, there was enough prurient naughtiness, spooky creepiness, and meet-cute sweetness to make me want to read the next volume. Just to see what the hell happens next...

The Black Bird (1975) - Soundtrack

The liner notes state that the recording sessions for The Black Bird took place on September 15, 17, 19 and 23 and December 2, 1975, respectively. The IMDB has the first broadcast date of The Devil's Platform, the seventh episode of the short-lived series Kolchak: The Night Stalker, being November 15, 1974.

When I first saw The Black Bird, which may or may not have been on the CBS Late Night Movie, I thought Gil Mellé had composed the film's score. Because I recognized the film's opening title, note-for-note, from yet another Kolchak: The Night Stalker episode, The Spanish Moss Murders, which I had made an audio tape recording of.

Because of that recording that opening theme will forever be linked to The Spanish Moss Murders, but, as noted above, its first appearance seems to have been in The Devil's Platform. Off the top of my head I also remember it being used in the infamous headless biker episode titled Chopper.

Being a credit reader, because I wanted to know who was creating or working on whatever it was I watching, I began noticing that the 'music by' credit on Kolchak: The Night Stalker was Gil Mellé on some episodes and Jerry Fielding on others.

There has been no official release of either Mellé's or Fielding's music for the series, but when Intrada released The Black Bird, I knew I had to have it. Because it might be the only way I could have even the smallest snippet of music from one of my all-time favorite television shows.

The liner notes do not mention Kolchak: The Night Stalker, even though The Black Bird's main title is the subject of a brief critical examination. 

"The composer's jazzy, string-based riff on the Main Title is very much in sync with his work of the vintage." Nick Redman wrote of the score. "The mid-1970s saw him gradually abandon some of his earlier tropes and mannerisms in favor of a style that would increasingly feature electronics. Like many composers of the time, he felt that synthesizers would begin to play a much greater part in film music and he began to accommodate them accordingly. Discreetly at first, and here mostly in the opening and closing titles, he experimented gingerly. A busy motif, in counterpoint to the orchestral forces, makes its presence felt."

For me, the presence felt in that busy motif is Carl Kolchak, forever driving his yellow Ford Mustang around the streets of Chicago, searching for a story...

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Trading Card #30

Heather Reflects

Although Heather admitted she got her team lost "for a brief amount of time," spirits were still high on the second day of shooting in the woods. "So what's up?" Josh asked Heather on videotape. "What's your take on the Blair Witch at this point? Does she exist?" Heather looked around, at the trees, the hills and the sky. "I don't now," she responded in a respectful, low-key fashion. "I don't know..." 

The Evil (1978) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - March 7, 1978

My earliest memory of The Evil might be seeing a clip from it used to punctuate the opening to some televised special that focused on horror, science fiction, and fantasy films. The clip consisted of a panicking Andrew Prine saying something like, "We gotta get out of here," followed by shots of all the doors and windows slamming shut, trapping everybody inside.

Alien (1979) - Trading Card #27

 

Isle of the Dead (1945) / Zombies on Broadway (1945) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - March 6, 1946

Twenty or so years ago, more or less, I purchased a DVD box set of the horror films Val Lewton produced for RKO. I watched them all, of course, but some lodged in my memory and others did not. Isle of the Dead is one of the latter.

Citing Arnold Böcklin's painting The Isle of the Dead as its inspiration (the painting is used as a backdrop for the film's opening title) and namesake, Isle of the Dead was directed by frequent Lewton collaborator Mark Robson.

While Robson had a lengthy directing career filled with all manner of notable titles, I knew him best as the director of Earthquake (1974).

The second half of this RKO first run double-bill is Zombies on Broadway, which was the studio's attempt at an Abbott and Costello style comedy. I have not seen it. But... John Stanley, in his book Revenge of the Creature Features Movie Guide, said, "Taken as a period piece, it is quite funny..." I'll take his word for it.

But I did learn a couple of interesting tidbits about the film. One being that Darby Jones, whose zombified countenance provided memorable nightmare fuel in Lewton's 1943 production I Walked with a Zombie, played one of the zombies commanded by the mad scientist Paul Renault (Bela Lugosi, of course). Another being that the film was directed by Gordon Douglas, who helmed the classic giant monster movie THEM! (1954).

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage [L'uccello dalle Piume di Cristallo] (1970) - Soundtrack

There was a healthy stretch of Christmas mornings wherein I was gifted with a plethora of horror, science fiction, and fantasy stuff. One such item was the soundtrack album for The Bird with the Crystal Plumage released by Cerberus Records in 1981. I still have that album, in fact.

But today's subject will be this expanded release from Cinevox, which presents the complete score in stereo, for the very first time.

The liner notes for the Cerberus album describe Morricone's score as "innovative and effective," to which I agree. The notes also point out how the score "is more modern in contrast to what was the more conventional 'gothic' style [of the time]" and "laced with ominous sighs and the constricted breaths of fear."

About that latter example. Both albums feature a one minute and twenty-or-so second(s) long track titled The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, which features a woman's 'constricted' gasps of fear and desperation, underplayed by a thumping percussion that starts off slow, but gradually quickens.

While I can understand what Morricone was attempting to achieve, that does not prevent me from thinking the track sounds less like a woman in duress and more like a woman, um, working herself up to a rather satisfying la petite mort.

If you know I what I mean, and I think you do. 

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Trading Card #29

Josh's Report

It was the morning of their second day in the forested wilderness. Half-asleep, Josh commented that he was kept awake during the night by strange sounds coming from outside the tent. "You heard noises last night?" asked Heather. "It was like there were two separate noises coming from two layers of space over here," explained Josh, still in his bad. "One of them could have possibly been an owl, but the other was a cackling. It was a total cackling." 

The Godsend (1980) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - March 5, 1980

I find it rather amusing that I have a far stronger memory of seeing Bernard Taylor's source novel in the spinner racks or shelves of our local retailers than of this film adaptation's theatrical release at our local theater.

Like yesterday's The Bad Seed, The Godsend is a gap in my reading and viewing that may or may not ever be filled in.

John Stanley's review of the film in his Revenge of the Creature Features Movie Guide describes The Godsend as "a fair British horror film focusing on psychological aspects rather than grisly details." That sounds promising. Maybe I should watch this on a double-bill with Cathy's Curse? Just a thought.

I also pulled Grady Hendrix's Paperbacks from Hell off my TBR mountain and gave it a thumb through, hoping there might be something to share. Nope. The paperback cover is shown without zero comment or critique. So it goes.

Alien (1979) - Trading Card #26

This picture is less "A Pensive Kane" and more a candid of an actor on the film set, either resting or preparing for another take, considering there is a crew member standing behind him. 

The Bad Seed - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - March 4, 1956

The Bad Seed is a long neglected gap in my reading and viewing to do list that I really need to get around to closing, some day. 

I did grow up with an awareness that William March's novel existed, because I would see it at the local bookstores on occasion. Ditto for the film adaptation of this stage adaptation by Maxwell Anderson of March's novel.

I can also hope that the play gets a revival somewhere some day. Who knows. I might even watch the 1985 and 2018 remakes. Maybe. Maybe not. How is that for decisive?

Big Trouble in Little China (1986) - Soundtrack

I was every bit as happy as Jack Burton was overly confident when La-La Land Records released this expanded upgrade of John Carpenter and Alan Howarth's score for Big Trouble in Little China. No more would I have make do with the truncated and paltry 45 minutes of music that had been released by Enigma Records, way back in 1986.

Now I have the complete score and what a score it is...

The Blair Witch Project (1999) - Trading Card #28

Coffin Rock

Heather's narration (continued): "On each man's sun-bleached face was inscribed indecipherable writing, cut into his flesh with eerie precision. The (rescuers), still entranced by the horror of what had happened, left the scene to find the sheriff, and did not sketch the writing and did not remove the bodies from the rock. Upon return, the bodies and had been removed by persons unknown. The search party claimed that the stench of death was still thick, and whoever had taken the bodies had done so in a matter of hours." 

The Mangler (1995) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - March 3, 1995

I remember studying one of the newspaper ads for The Mangler with no small degree of incredulity. How did this thing manage to get a theatrical release? By 1995 this kind of stuff was released direct-to-video, not to big screen venues.

Perhaps it was the film's source material. The Mangler is one of my all-time favorite stories from Stephen King's Night Shift anthology, so I knew I would be seeing it. 

Although Tobe Hooper had done an impressive job directing the 1979 Salem's Lot mini-series, his work post The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 wobbled between disappointing, at best, and dire, at worst.

Robert Englund being in the film did not hurt, but it also might not help all the much. While Englund was game for becoming a Vincent Price style horror icon, his on screen charisma could only carry a film like this so far. Hooper would need to bring his A-game, if that were still possible.

Those were all the pluses I saw in the ad. Yet there was one gigantic minus that eclipsed them all and raised my doubt level all the way up to critical. The name Harry Alan Towers.

Towers was an exploitation writer-producer best known for his numerous film adaptations of works by Sax Rohmer, Agatha Christie, Marquis de Sade, and/or Edgar Wallace. He also produced several of the more "notable" films made by the euro-sleaze-exploitation titan Jesus Franco in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Towers earned my eternal distrust by producing the lackluster sleaze-fest Edge of Sanity, which starred a slumming it for the paycheck Anthony Perkins. The friend I was unfortunate enough to see it with can and will attest that I writhed in my seat throughout most of that film's runtime.

So I was a tad suspect of The Mangler.

It is unfortunate that those suspicions proved to be well founded. While there were some things I liked about The Mangler, such as its production design, theatrical to the point of camp tone, and pitch black humor, I thought it dragged horribly. Cut some ten to fifteen minutes, starting with the extraneous, over-the-top, and painfully drawn-out dialogue exchanges between Ted Levine and Daniel Matmor, and maybe, just maybe, this could have become a campy horror hoot drawn from the same horror-comedy vein as HBO's Tales from the Crypt series.

But it was not to be. So it goes.