Film

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Sharkbait Retro Village: Mysterious Two

Published November 7, 2019 by biggayhorrorfan

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If the idea of having the aristocratic Priscilla Pointer (Carrie, Nightmare on Elm Street 3) as your Alien Queen appeals to you, the 1982 television of the week film Mysterious Two will be right up your alley. Always adding social flair to his material, here writer-director Gary Sherman (Death Line, Poltergeist III, Vice Squad) took the dangerous reality of the Heaven’s Gate cult and gave it some otherworldly twists. Founders Bonnie Nettles and Marshall Applewhite are reimagined as true planetary presences, embodied by the soft speaking Pointer and the eternally recognizable John Forsythe. 

Popping in and out of the action, these two lure a group of disillusioned seekers to a small desert town to await their eventual ascension to another world. Of course the loved ones of those following He and She, the characters portrayed by Pointer and Forsythe, are none too happy and try desperately to interfere with those plans with increasingly futile results. Mysterious Desert scene

Ultimately more of strange character study with Asmovian elements than out and out science fiction, Sherman still works creepy magic here. The scene of a senior male wandering worriedly through a dusty oasis of fallen bodies is beyond chilling. Dread also seeps in through the frames as one realizes that none of He and She’s determined followers are going to escape their shadowy fates.

 Adding to the effectiveness, Sherman also gets multilayered performances from such character actors as horror giant Robert Englund, with whom he also worked with on Dead and Buried, Robert Pine and Vic Tayback, who offers up a portrayal that is far removed from the antics of Alice’s Mel, his definitive role. 

Mysterious RobertAs more and more obscure projects are finally seeing the light of day on DVD and Blu-ray, one hopes that Mysterious Two will eventually get a decent release. Until then the too dark copy available on YouTube and other outlets will have to suffice.

 Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Review: Who Killed Joan Crawford?

Published November 4, 2019 by biggayhorrorfan

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William Castle fiends take note. If Strait-Jacket era Joan Crawford is your thing then you better rush your cult film worshipping selves to the Athenaeum Theatre for the final performances of Glitterati Production’s beyond fun Who Killed Joan Crawford?

Taking place on Tony Awards night in 1993, this engaging and campy thriller revolves around the backstabbing antics of a group of longtime friends. Of course, the fact that all the players are dressed in various forms of Crawford drag does eventually limit their mobility as various weapons are brought out for purposes of bloody dispatching. There is also the small problem of their mysteriously missing host.

Directing Michael Leeds’ cattily inventive script with flair, director John Nasca highlights the material’s expected, much loved murder-mystery tropes with zeal. He and Lana Whittington, who designed the show’s more physical interactions, also skillfully help denote the fact that this ensemble of characters are not experienced drag performers, but grown men indulging a friend’s grand birthday wish.

Importantly, those various versions of Joan, focusing on everything from her early treks into stardom to her latter day romps in psycho biddy territory (note the Straight-Jacket reference above), are delivered with exquisite, recognizable skill by Nasca. He is grandly assisted by Robert Hilliard, who puts a definite, celluloid stamp on the wide variety of wigs used.

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Bringing this brisk 75 minute romp fully into the pleasure zone, though, is it’s very agreeable cast. Compromised of newer talent and seasoned veterans of Chicago’s professional theater scene, the ensemble joyfully gives their characters a sense of specificity as a whole. It’s truly a nice balance of personalities, with John Cardone and Patrick Rybarczyk, in particular, giving an arch urgency and playful verve to their calculating, frequently divisive interactions. Nicely, Michael Hampton, as the seemingly loving and emotionally convincing Stewart Fry, truly commands attention here, as well. His character is perhaps the most well rounded of the lot, and he makes the most of every occasionally contrary, frequently whimsical moment.

More information on the show, which runs in Chicago until November 10th, is available at https://www.facebook.com/events/2804610532934028/.

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Dead and Buried

Published November 3, 2019 by biggayhorrorfan

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Director Gary Sherman has always displayed a sense of social urgency and class in his work. In 1981’s Dead and Buried, he examined the destructiveness of totalitarianism amid the face melting special effects and bloodshed. He also showed true style by using big band tunes to underscore some of the more realistic mayhem. Of special interest to songbird aficionados, he chose Doris Day’s beloved rendition of Sentimental Journey to compliment a joyful moment with Jack Albertson’s magnetic William Dobbs.

Day, who died in 2019, and Albertson, who finished out his long film career with Dead and Buried, definitely are a smart team-up. Both appeared together in 1961’s Lover Come Back to Me, making this fun, macabre mash-up all the more meaningful.

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Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Va-Va-Villainess: Patrice Wymore

Published October 29, 2019 by biggayhorrorfan

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Her obituary in 2014 highlighted her role as Errol Flynn’s wife (and mother to his daughter), but true cinema fans know there is much more to the glorious Patrice Wymore. In particular, she displayed much grace and beauty as an actress in projects such as Tea for Two and I’ll See You in My Dreams (both with Doris Day).

Significantly, this distinguished beauty also gave the world its first incarnation of Poison Ivy. Almost 15 years before the DC universe introduced their own misguided floral enchantress, Wymore brought Ivy Williams to vengeful fruition in 1952’s She’s Working Her Way Through College. Nicknamed “Poison” by the other characters in this collegiate musical, Wymore invests Williams with a silken determination and steely focus. Jealous of the attention that Virginia Mayo’s sassy burlesque queen Angela Gardner is receiving on campus, Ivy threatens to reveal her brightly spangled past to the conservative college officials. Naturally, blackmailing Gardner backfires, but Wymore’s destructive Ivy pretty much steals the show here. Her icy concentration contrasts perfectly with Mayo’s chummy warmth.

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Unfortunately for cinema buffs, caring for the ailing Flynn took Wymore away from the silver screen, prematurely, and she spent her senior years on a plantation in their beloved Jamaica. Still, anyone lucky enough to stumble upon the handful of successful projects she appeared in, is sure to fall in love with her obvious charms.

Horror Hall of Fame:

In a rare latter day credit, Wymore appeared as Vivian in 1966’s fun, star studded Chamber of Horrors.

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Virginia Mayo

Published October 27, 2019 by biggayhorrorfan

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One of the first to earn a star on the Hollywood Walk Fame, the dazzling Virginia Mayo added gleeful zest to such projects as White Heat, (the award winning) The Best Years of Our Lives and (the truly fun) She’s Working Her Way Through College. Her finely tuned acting antics also found spooky purchase in a diverse array of macabre settings. Her performances in Castle of Evil, Haunted, Evil Spirits and an episode of Night Gallery understandably brought her great acclaim.

Some lucky appreciators also got a chance to see her perform onstage in such shows as No, No Nanette, Good News and, perhaps most importantly, Stephen Sondheim’s Follies.

The Follies clip is especially notable as it gives people a chance to actually hear Mayo’s singing voice. While her characters often silkily warbled tunes in her movies, she was almost always dubbed, allowing people to concentrate fully on her smooth dance moves as opposed to favoring her dulcet tones.

Mayo, who died at the age of 84 in 2005, also made appearances in such cult films as Midnight Witness, the notorious Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood, and The Silver Chalice, which featured an oft-robed Paul Newman in his first major role.

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Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Freda Payne and Belinda Carlisle

Published October 20, 2019 by biggayhorrorfan

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When you’re a possessed killer doll there is only one thing that you need, besides an innocent soul or two to take over (of course), and that is — a band of gold. Thankfully, for the over ominous Annabelle that’s exactly what she receives in the first few minutes of her latest offering, Annabelle Comes Home. As the Warrens, the central couple of this film series, drive our deadly inanimate lass off to her final resting place, Freda Payne’s classic song of heartbreak pops up on the radio.

Of course, Annabelle being Annabelle, she might prefer a still sweet yet harder edged cover version like the one provided by Belinda Carlisle, the sassily magnetic leader of the Go-Go’s.

But whatever version she ultimately chooses, there is one thing for certain -this mistress of mayhem definitely has good taste!

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Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Unsung Heroines of Horror: Marguerite Churchill

Published October 18, 2019 by biggayhorrorfan

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One of early horror’s most refreshing presences, the glorious Marguerite Churchill charmed her way through two significant entries of macabre mayhem in 1936.

Working with Boris Karloff under the intense supervision of the distinguished Michael Curtiz (Casablanca), Churchill’s Nancy spends the majority of The Walking Dead radiating with lush concern for Karloff’s ill used John Ellman. Brought back to life after being sent to his death by a crew of mob lowlifes, including the eternally oily Ricardo Cortez as Nolan, Ellman’s revenge fueled actions are magnified in an understanding light here via Karloff’s haunted facial tics and Churchill’s sympathetic glow.

Marguerite-Draculas-Daughter_02Dracula’s Daughter meanwhile allowed Churchill to display a sassier nature. Consistently providing comic aggravation for esteemed psychiatrist Jeffrey Garth (Otto Kruger), Churchill is full of zesty energy here. Even when her character faces peril as the victim of the exotic Countess Marya (Gloria Holden), Churchill shines with warmth. It’s no surprise that, at the film’s fade out, the darker charms of Holden pale next to Holden’s vibrant spark and Kruger’s Garth is as smitten with her as those many lucky viewers in the dark.

Ultimately surviving two of her three children by several years, Churchill retired from the screen in the early ‘50s. Later she spent many years overseas, before putting down roots in Oklahoma. Wherever she went, though, one hopes that she understood the depths of her filmic legacy and all the happiness that she provided cinema lovers, worldwide.

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Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Music to Make Horror Movies By: Helen Morgan and Lillian Roth

Published October 8, 2019 by biggayhorrorfan

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Helen Morgan’s lovely take on Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man from Show Boat is used to grand effect in Alfred Sole’s unusually powerful horror effort Alice, Sweet Alice. Introducing the pivotal presence of Mr. Alphonso, a creepy landlord who antagonistically preys upon the title character, Sole uses this number in the background to illustrate the strange emotional landscape of this sometimes pitiful, always unsavory character.

Morgan (above left), who died of alcoholism at an early age, had two biographies filmed of her life and troubled times. In an interesting coincidence, Sole cast Lillian Roth (above right), a singer and actress in the tradition of Morgan, in a small but pivotal role of a pathologist in the film. In reality, Roth’s path echoed Morgan’s on many levels, adding a nice layer of show business coincidence to this well loved film, which was recently given the deluxe Blu-ray treatment from Arrow Video. As with Morgan, Roth’s life was given a cinematic appraisal by Susan Hayward, who was nominated for an Oscar for her work, in I’ll Cry Tomorrow.

Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Hopelessly Devoted to: Laurinda Barrett

Published October 3, 2019 by biggayhorrorfan

 

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Esteemed theater actress Laurinda Barrett is probably best known to celluloid buffs from her work in the 1968 film adaptation of Carson McCullers’ The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Eagle eyed viewers will also remember her appearance in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Wrong Man, as well.

Laurinda Wrong ManThankfully, working with the Master of Suspense must have prepared Barrett for her work as Molly Sherwood on the long running mystery soap The Edge of Night. With knife like precision and incisive skill, Barrett enacted Sherwood’s reign of terror with a rare sensitivity – and a cold blooded determination. Illogically predisposed to do away with anyone who seemingly threatened a loved one, Sherwood not only calmly killed those she considered perpetrators, but also anyone she suspected may have knowledge of her crimes.

Utilizing horror influences to the extreme here, this EON plotline reached its pinnacle when Sherwood stabbed one offender while wearing a disturbingly cheery clown hand puppet to mask her fingerprints.

A veteran of multiple soap operas, including All My Children and Guiding Light, it is ultimately Barrett’s macabre run as Molly that lingers on in viewers’ minds. Decades after those initial airdates, this observation is a true testament to the richness and power of her work all those years ago – and proves that even without superstar status, this dedicated performer made a true impact on people’s lives.

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Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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Music to Make Horror Movies By – Little Boots

Published September 29, 2019 by biggayhorrorfan

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Tenth anniversary analysis articles on Jennifer’s Body, the feminist horror buddy flick scripted by Diablo Cody, have focused on the much renewed appreciation brewing for this initially maligned exercise in fright making. (For the record…I loved it from the get go and saw it twice in the theater before it quickly disappeared from the screens.)

Besides its energetic performances and enthusiastic direction, the film also featured a killer soundtrack. One of the most notable numbers was the perky yet strangely ominous New in Town, sassily essayed by the unforgettable Little Boots.

Perfectly capturing the film’s essence with that song, Little Boots is now winning over fans’ hearts anew while touring in celebration of Hands, the album that initially featured this tune.

https://www.facebook.com/littleboots  https://www.littlebootsmusic.co.uk/

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Until the next time, SWEET love and pink GRUE, Big Gay Horror Fan!

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