Subj : Halloween Movies part 1 To : ALL From : Mike Powell Date : Wed Nov 06 2019 22:14:10 Each Halloween time, I usually watch a few of my favorite scary movies. This year, I decided to watch some new ones, brought to me by TCM channel and my DVR. As Halloween got moved here locally to 11/2, I had a couple of extra days in the season to watch movies! Some were not so much Sci-Fi as they were suspenseful, but I included them, too. NOSFERATU: A SYMPHONY OF HORROR (1922, silent) * * * 1/2 -- starring Max Schreck as the vampire, here called Count Orlok. This was one of the earliest (unauthorized) adaptations of Bram Stroker's "Dracula." Considering how old it is, I was impressed by the special effects. It was originally in German, and the version that TCM shows has been restored from various prints... the cards are all in English or have subtitles otherwise. A happy couple, living in a small German town, have their lives turned upside down when the husband is sent away to Transylvania to see the mysterious Count Orlok, who is considering buying a property in their town. While away, the husband finds an old book -- a story of Nosferatu, a vampire. While visiting the Count, the husband has strange "visions" that he attributes to reading the book. The Count leaves the husband in Transylvania to travel back to his new place in Germany, by sea. The husband escapes and travels back, by land, getting back home just as the Count arrives. The town is then ravaged by "the plague"... but is it really something else? If you are not into older, silent movies, you might not find it too horrific, but I thought it was pretty good and would watch it again. MARK OF THE VAMPIRE (1935) * * 1/2 -- stars Bela Lugosi as a vampire (of course!), Count Mora, and Lionel Barrymore as "the doctor" figure found in many of the Nosferatu/Dracula stories/movies. In Prague, where the locals believe that vampires roam the countryside, a prominent local man is found murder in his house with a possible "bite mark" wound on his neck. Needless to say, vampires are soon blamed, and the odd Count Mora and his daughter Luna (played by Carroll Borland) are soon the top suspects. The Police are more skeptical. A Professor Zelen, played by Barrymore, who is an expert on vampires is consulted about the strange case. I found parts of the movie difficult to follow but, when a plot twist near the end is revealed, those parts suddenly made sense. Lugosi actually speaks in this film, towards the end, and what is says is pretty funny considering what roles he is best known for. MAD LOVE (1935) * * * -- Dr Gogol (Peter Lorre) is a well known surgeon and philanthropist. He becomes enamoured with a stage acress, Yvonne Orlac (Frances Drake). Unfortunately for him, she is married to famous concert pianist Stephen Orlac (Colin Clive) and soon retires from the theatre to make a home with her husband full-time. Shortly thereafter, Stephen's hands are crushed in a train accident. Yvonne uses her influence on Gogol to persuade him to help her husband save his hands. Without telling the Orlac's, Gogol is forced to amputate Orlac's crushed hands, and replaces them with the hands of a recently-executed knife-throwing murderer. While Stephen is driven to dispair by his recovery process (and his confusion regarding his new-found love of knife throwing), Gogol is driven to madness by his obsession with Mrs. Orlac and his inability to have her. One of my favorite Lorre movies, of ones that don't include Humphrey Bogart or Sydney Greenstreet. As this was the second or third time I had seen it, I actually found myself feeling a little sorry for Gogol, who had shown himself to be a pretty decent guy when it came to helping young children with otherwise hopeless medical conditions. Lorre does creepy well here, too. THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME (1932) * * * -- This is a pre-code adaptation of a short-story I have read before. Big game hunter and author Bob Rainsford (Joel McCrea) finds himself stranded on an island somewhere in the South Pacific (or Indian) Ocean after the yacht he is traveling on crashes against the rocks in the straights and sinks. The rest of the passengers and crew have succumbed to either their injuries or to the shark-infested waters. He soon finds a castle that is inhabited by a Russian, Count Zaroff, who has made his home here after fleeing the Communist Revolution. Also in the castle are two survivors from another recent shipwreck. Rainsford is soon pleased to find that Zaroff shares his love for hunting -- something in common they have -- but something seems off as Zaroff begins to describe a new type of game he has become fond of hunting -- the most dangerous game ever known. Zaroff will not reveal what type of animal it is that he has found. One of the fellow castaways, Eve (Fay Wray) is skeptical, too, and begins to share her fears with Rainsford. After Eve's brother disappears, the nature of the "game" is revealed when Rainsford finds himself the target of one of the Count's hunts! I enjoyed the short story when I was younger, and this movie is very good. The movie descriptions online say the location is off the coast of South America. I don't remember that being mentioned in the movie and somehow got the impression that they were near Indonesia. Ironically, that is the setting for another Fay Wray movie, King Kong, which was being filmed in the same location, at the same time as this one. I will continue this in a second message. :) Mike * SLMR 2.1a * Despite the high cost of living, it remains popular. SEEN-BY: 1/107 17/1 .