HALLOWEEN GALLERY - THE NORTH WING

I HAVE BEEN TROLLING THE INTERWEBS FOR SOME HALLOWEENY TREATS.  For the next week or so, I'll be presenting a some spooky treasures for you -- we now enter the North wing of our Halloween Gallery where you may feast your eyes on...

CLASSIC E.C. COMICS ARTWORK BY GHASTLY GRAHAM INGLES

A 1947 MAGAZINE AD FOR WURLITZER WITH ALBERT DORNE ART

KATHARINE HEPBURN IN HER "MOTH" COSTUME FROM THE 1933 FILM "CHRISTOPHER STRONG" CO-STARRING COLIN CLIVE!

DC COMICS' "THE PHANTOM STRANGER" #4 (1953)

MAE WEST FROM THE 1933 FILM "I'M NO ANGEL"

WONDERFUL GAHAN WILSON HALLOWEEN CARTOON

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM GRANPA MUNSTER AL LEWIS IN A 60's MUNSTERS PUBLICITY SHOT

"BEWARE THE BEAUTIFUL WITCH" BY POWER O'MALLEY FROM THE COVER OF LIFE MAGAZINE OCTOBER 30, 1913

PATRICK MCHALE ART FROM "OVER THE GARDEN WALL:  HARD TIMES AT THE HUSKIN' BEE"

HERE COMES 1973: FROM THE COVER OF TV GUIDE

PART QUATRE OF OUR LOOK BACK AT THE DECADE OF THE SEVENTIES.  This time we point out some groovy covers from 1973!

THE WEEK OF JANUARY 6 - 12

 

Once again TV Guide started the year with a look back at the previous one.  Another nice composite drawing of some of the old year's events such as Richard Nixon's China trip and treaty with the Soviet Union, another moon feller and what looks like Mark Spitz at them there Olympics.  Full disclaimer:  I hate the Olympics.  People are glued to the television set to watch "sporting events" which they would never DREAM of watching any other time of the year; unless you're a devoted year-round followers of shotputting, why would you JUST HAVE to tune in to every minute of the it during the Olympics.  However, back to Mark Spitz . . . I do remember having a Mark Spitz poster on me wall when I was a kid at this time.  I also remember it wasn't me that bought it or even asked for it.  It's one of those peculiarities of parenthood that they'll buy something for you which you have absolutely no interest in.  I can just picture my little 7 year old self staring at that poster thinking "I've lived with 'em for seven years -- can they STILL have no idea who I am?!?!?!"

 

 

THE WEEK OF  JANUARY 20 - 26

 

Back to those weekend nights at my grandparents' house after my bath and tuning into MARY TYLER MOORE; well, following that I believe was THE BOB NEWHART SHOW.  Another huge favourite of mine aided no doubt by the fact that I had another of those childhood crushes on Suzanne Pleshette!  Oh yes, and once again my favourite episode of Newhart's show is a Thanksgiving one also:  "Over the River and Through the Woods" a.k.a. "Moo Goo Gai Pan".  And by the way, those two suits Bob and Suzanne are wearing would've fried the reception on our 1970's television set!

 

 

THE WEEK OF FEBRUARY 24 - MARCH 2

 

Here we have another of my "comfort TV" shows:  M*A*S*H*.  At least the first half of the series before they got a little too serious for their own good.  However, when the show was funny it was FUNNY!  Once again we also have a TV show based on a movie (i.e. THE ODD COUPLE) in which I much prefer the TV show to the movie.  During one of the worst periods of my life when I couldn't bring myself to listen to music or be able to watch a new movie, it was my first half-dozen dvds of M*A*S*H* that got me through it.  I was able to play episode after episode in front of my glazed-over eyes and the comfortable familiarity of each episode was the only thing which seemed to settle me down.

 

 

THE WEEK OF MARCH 3 - 9

 

I won't start in again on how I never watched cop shows.  However, this portrait of William Conrad as Cannon is top notch!  I've always had a great liking for William Conrad; whether in his countless second banana roles in films from THE KILLERS to THE NAKED JUNGLE or from his long career acting in old time radio shows in everything from radio's half-hour of high adventure "ESCAPE" to portraying the original Marshal Matt Dillon on radio's "GUNSMOKE". 

 

 

THE WEEK OF APRIL 7 - 13

 

Children's television is the 70's was superb.  This statement owes more than a little to the fact that I was indeed a child during the 70's.  Even though some of the shows picture on this cover are actually from the 1960's (THE FLINTSTONES, H.R. PUFNSTUF, THE PINK PANTHER) they were endlessly aired during the 70s as well.  Early, early every weekday morning while waiting to walk down to the school bus stop, I watched LOONEY TUNES and MERRIE MELODIES on Channel 17.  Naturally, after school was another smorgasbord of UHF cartoon delights.  Channel 48 in the afternoons offered all the Hanna-Barbera cartoons (Quick Draw McGraw, Huckleberry Hound) as well as Casper the Friendly Ghost, BATTLE OF THE PLANETS (Go G-Force!) etc.  Channel 29 showed that other Japanese import STAR BLAZERS and, I'm pretty sure, SCOOBY-DOO, WHERE ARE YOU?  Channel 17 had those old 60's superhero cartoons of Superman, Batman, Aquaman (and even the occasional rare ones like the Justice League of America) as well as more dubbed Japanese cartoons SPEED RACER, ASTRO BOY and MARINE BOY.  And of course, Saturday morning cartoons were all encompassing back then.  It sure was great to be a kid back in the 1970s. 

 

 

THE WEEK OF APRIL 28 - MAY 4

 

There's an odd pattern emerging here of my choosing covers to shows I never watched.  Nope, never watched THE WALTONS either!  Although, I think I did see one episode:  the one with the Hindenburg in it.  Other than that, my only other close encounter with THE WALTONS was reading the Mad Magazine parody "THE WALLNUTS".  Or was it CRACKED magazine???  However, this is a very striking, interesting cover art, dontcha think?

 

 

THE WEEK OF JUNE 2 - 8

 

Back to one of my all-time favourite comfort TV shows:  ALL IN THE FAMILY.  Archie and co. were ruling the roost on television by this time as a major cultural touchstone.  Here we have a nice portrait of Mike Evans and Carroll O'Connor.  Does everyone know that not only did Mike Evans portray Lionel Jefferson but he also co-created the show GOOD TIMES?

 

 

THE WEEK OF JUNE 16 - 22

 

ALL IN THE FAMILY had a truckload of spin-offs; one of them being MAUDE.  This superb Hirshfeld caricature of Bea Arthur and Bill Macy just had to make my list of great covers.

 

 

THE WEEK OF JULY 14 - 20

 

 

Was THE SONNY & CHER SHOW a summer replacement?  I don't know but I seem to remember me strolling over to my little girlfriend Mary Beth's house on warm summer evenings to watch it with her.  Dig Cher's platform shoes!  Oh, and close your shirt, Sonny!

 

 

THE WEEK OF NOVEMBER 10 - 16

 

Here's another of those boffo "everything but the kitchen sink" TV GUIDE covers depicting the wealth of star-studded spectacle offered during Fall sweeps week, no doubt!  That's a ton of specials going on there including ole Dino in the (I assume) television broadcast premiere of the new movie "AIRPORT"! 

 

 

THE WEEK OF DECEMBER 15 - 21

 

I am a huge fan of Katharine Hepburn; she's my favourite film actress full stop.  So imagine my delight seeing her on the cover of the TV GUIDE running up to Christmastime in 1973.  This is a pretty terrific drawing of her, too.  "THE GLASS MENAGERIE" is indeed an excellent filmed play and happily is available on dvd. 

 

 

THE WEEK OF DECEMBER 22 - 28

 

And this brings us to that very time of Christmas 1973.  Here we have a nice little collection of Santa chotsky on the cover.  I'm sure this very issue sat on the end table in my grandparents living room near the shiny silver aluminum Christmas tree which had a spotlight shining on it through a rotating disc of many colours!

1962: SOME FAVOURITE FILMS FROM 50 YEARS AGO. In an effort to prove that this is NOT a comic book blog (recent posts to the contrary), I thought I'd trot out the yearly list of my ten favouritest films from half a century ago. This is quite a big year since it not only contains my favourite film of all time (L'ECLISSE) but also two from my top 10 faves of all-time (LONG DAY'S JOURNEY as well), my favourite Luis Bunuel film and also my mother's favourite film. Talk about a monumental movie year! So here goes, in alphabetical ordure:

ADVISE & CONSENT - Otto Preminger's all-star political powerhouse of backroom deals and Capitol Hill hardball has the Senate investigating the President's newly nominated candidate for Secretary of State and his possible political hot potato past. Henry Fonda, Charles Laughton, Gene Tierney, Burgess Meredith and Walter Pidgeon head a stupendous cast.

BILLY BUDD - I'm a sucker for Herman Melville and here's an excellent film adaptation of the short story directed here by Peter Ustinov (!) and featuring the screen debut of Terence Stamp as the naive, almost angelic sailor who is pressed into serving on a Royal Navy ship where he encounters not only an onboard evil but also man's fundamental struggle with conscience, honour and duty. Truly gripping by the film's climax. The great Robert Ryan, Peter Ustinov and Melvyn Douglas head a cast of brilliant British character actors.

L'ECLISSE - The current reigning champ as my favourite film of all-time (closely followed by and sometimes switching places with Bergman's WINTER LIGHT), director Michelangelo Antonioni masterpiece about the existential crisis of modern man as well as our strange alienation from each other and a few other monumental themes of modern life. Il maestro's muse Monica Vitti and Alain Delon star.

THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL - Probably my favourite Luis Bunuel film involving a dinner party of well-to-do's who find themselves unable to leave the dining room. Ever. Baffling and intriguing as only Bunuel can be. Stars Sylvia Pinal, Jacqueline Andere, Enrique Rambal and many more.

LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT - One of my top ten favourite films. Sidney Lumet adapts Eugene O'Neill's searing semi-autobiographical play of a family's tense inter-relationships and the coping with a mother's drug addiction. Perhaps Katharine Hepburn's greatest screen role (and that's saying something) for which she was nominated for an Academy Award, the film also stars Sir Ralph Richardson, Jason Robards Jr. and Dean Stockwell.

THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE - My mother's favourite film. The classic film of a brainwashed war hero unconsciously awaiting the code words which will turn him into a robotic assassin. John Frankenheimer directs Laurence Harvey, Angela Lansbury, Frank Sinatra, and Janet Leigh in this tense and spooky thriller. Why don't you pass the time by playing solitaire?

THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE - Perhaps John Ford's final masterpiece finds a Senator who became famous for killing a notorious outlaw returning for the funeral of an old friend and, in the process, discovering some past secrets. John Wayne, James Stewart, Vera Miles and Woody Strode star in this elegiac western classic.

TALES OF TERROR - Time for a little popcorn-munching fun with Roger Corman's portmanteau movie adapting three Edgar Allan Poe tales: Morella, The Black Cat and The Case of M. Valdemar. Starring Vincent Price, Peter Lorre and Basil Rathbone.

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD - Classic film adaptation of Harper Lee's great American novel of a Southern lawyer defending a black man against a trumped-up rape charge while trying to teach his own kids to reject prejudice. Gregory Peck, Brock Peters, and a young Robert Duvall star in this Robert Mulligan classic.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? - The ultimate horror hag masterpiece with Bette Davis and Joan Crawford locking horns as two decaying Hollywood sisters confined to a decaying Hollywood mansion. As sick and twisted as Robert Aldrich could make it!

THE 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS . . .MOVIES. Hark the herald dvd player spins bringing to us some yuletide viewing pleasure. If I were to have my druthers (and when do I not) and I could programme 12 movies I'd want to see around Christmas time, this is the list I'd compile. And in this viewing order, too.

1. MIRACLE ON 34th STREET (1947) - So sue me, it's a classic. Starting off on Thanksgiving Day with the Macy's parade, the perfect traditional lead-in to the holidays. Oscar-winner Edmund Gwenn, the heavenly Maureen O'Hara, precocious Natalie Wood, stalwart John Payne and even a career-making cameo by Thelma Ritter. How can you go wrong?
2. CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT (1945) - A favourite from my kiddie days. Barbara Stanwyck is a "perfect homemaker column" writer who doesn't know pen and paper from pots and pans; she gets stuck into faking an "old-fashioned Christmas at home" when her boss and a returning G.I. invite themselves to her house in the country. Great cast includes Sydney Greenstreet, Dennis Morgan, S.Z. Sakall (remember him from CASABLANCA?), Una O'Connor (remember her from BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN?) and more.
3. THE BISHOP'S WIFE (1947) - Bishop David Niven and his wife Loretta Young are having problems until angel Cary Grant shows up to put things right at Christmas. Monty Wooley, Gladys Cooper, Elsa Lanchester and James Gleason are featured in the cast.
4. DESK SET (1957) - I usually watch this movie every Christmas. Katharine Hepburn heads the research department at a television studio and efficiency expert/electronic brain inventor Spencer Tracy starts snooping around. Love those fifties! Joan Blondell and Gig Young add to the stellar cast. This movie might make "pudding in a cloud" a Christmas staple with me!
5. WE'RE NO ANGELS (1955) - Three escaped prisoners from Devil's Island plan to rob a store but instead end up helping the store's beleaguered family when the owner threatens to toss them out in the street. Humphrey Bogart, Aldo Ray and Peter Ustinov are the convicts, Basil Rathbone is the stingy owner and Leo G. Carroll & Joan Bennett are the put-upon storekeepers.
6. DIE HARD (1988) - Nothing says Christmas like blowing up shit! And scrunching your toes into the carpet helps a lot too. Bruce Willis gets the snot beat outta him by Alan Rickman and his band of do-badders.
7. THE LION IN WINTER (1968) - It's Christmas in 1183 and we're all barbarians! A festive family medieval Christmas with Peter O'Toole as King Henry II and Katharine Hepburn as Eleanor of Acquitaine and a family who are at each others throats: Anthony Hopkins, John Castle, Nigel Terry (later to play King Arthur in EXCALIBUR), Timothy Dalton and Jane Merrow fill out this stupendous film's cast.
8. NOBODY'S FOOL (1994) - One of my favourite Paul Newman films. This takes place from Thanksgiving through Christmas and features Paul Newman's Sully; who can never seem to do anything right. Jessica Tandy, Bruce Willis, Melanie Griffith also star.
9. THE HOUSE WITHOUT A CHRISTMAS TREE (1972) - I first saw this TV movie as a kid when it first aired and it haunted the back of my mind until I found it on VHS sometime in the late 1980s. Jason Robards stars as a father who refuses to allow a Christmas tree in the house because the loss of his wife. However, his daughter and his mother decide to work on him and change his mind. The wonderful Mildred Natwick also stars.
10. TRU (1992) - This filmed stage play aired on PBS's "American Playhouse" and showcases Robert Morse's magnificent one-man show portraying Truman Capote during Christmas 1975 when his rich and powerful friends ostracized the author for the publication of "ANSWERED PRAYERS".
11. PETER'S FRIENDS (1992) - A group of friends are invited to Peter's country estate between Christmas and New Year's. Much more than just "the British Big Chill", the cast includes Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Imelda Staunton, Phyllida Law and co-writer Rita Rudner.
12. A CHRISTMAS STORY (1983) - The old perennial. How can one escape it? Amazingly enough, no matter how many times I see it, I still laugh. And Darren McGavin shows what a real father SHOULD be like.

Also rans: WHITE CHRISTMAS (1954), IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946), HOLIDAY INN (1942), SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS (1964), ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS (1955) and BELL, BOOK AND CANDLE (1958).

MY 100 FAVOURITE FILMS (PART NINE). We're heading into the home stretch.

• On Golden Pond (1981) dir. Mark Rydell -- How CHARIOTS OF FIRE won best picture this year I'll never know. Examination of old age and the communication (or lack thereof) between the generations. Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda are sublime as always and Jane Fonda allows herself to be subordinated to the needs of the film. Henry Fonda's character feels himself fading away while Hepburn as his wife tries her best to bolster his sagging confidence. Bittersweet without being cloying.

• The Four Seasons (1981) dir. Alan Alda -- Three couples (Alan Alda & Carol Burnett, Rita Moreno and Jack Weston & Len Cariou and Sandy Dennis)grapple with the onset of middle age and the breakup of one of their marriages. A film divided into four parts (Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter) rejoins the groups only when they rejoin each other on their shared group vacations during each season of the year. Strongly character driven and quite funny in places. The introduction of Bess Armstrong as the "newcomer" throws all their staid lives into a tailspin.

• Strange Brew (1983) dir. Rick Moranis/Dave Thomas -- Before Beavis & Butthead, before Wayne & Garth there was Bob & Doug McKenzie. Direct from SCTV, the pair make their big screen debut in an audacious knuckleheaded comedy which manages to snare Max Von Sydow into the mix as well. The plot is too ridiculous to recount (deliberately convoluted as part of the joke) but the strange and very true-to-life brotherly relationship between Moranis and Thomas makes the film eminently watchable.
• A Christmas Story (1983) dir. Bob Clark -- the perennial Christmas favourite actually deserves to be dragged out every year. Magnificently written Jean Shepherd sorta memoir/reminiscence that manages to evoke the late 30's/early 40's with the addition of modern sensibilities looking backward. Peter Billingsley manages to carry the film on his tiny shoulders while Darren McGavin's father is priceless.

• Brazil (1985) dir. Terry Gilliam -- Former Python's masterpiece of dystopian near-future (are we there finally at long last?!?) with the faceless, monolithic power-that-be treating you and I like pawns. Jonathan Pryce is the nebbish office worker who dreams of heroics while battling his appliances. Katharine Helmond is his plastic surgery-obsessed mother (My God we ARE there already, aren't we?). Michael Palin is genuinely frightening in his smiling evil portrayal. Gilliam's epoch-shaking battle with the studio who wanted to impose a happy ending on the film was the stuff of a book in itself (THE BATTLE OF BRAZIL) but Gilliam's original cut is the ONLY one to watch; avoid the studio version like the plague!

• The Breakfast Club (1985) dir. John Hughes -- Not a John Hughes fan but I love this movie. Probably because I practically lived it. Unusually effective "brat pack" cast brings real emotion to the plight of high schoolers desperately trying to resist being crammed into the neat little boxes imposed by society at large. My late great college professor (The Underground Grammarian Dr. Richard Mitchell) once said to me that he always watched two movies before the start of every school year: EDUCATING RITA (which just missed out on this list) to remember how a teacher SHOULD be and THE BREAKFAST CLUB to remember where his students were coming from. Keen soundtrack too.

• Clockwise (1986) dir. Christopher Morahan -- John Cleese's cinematic highpoint as he plays a teacher obsessed with punctuality who must travel to be guest of honour at a teacher's symposium. Naturally, everything that could possibly go wrong does go wrong. A modern day screwball comedy/road picture.
• 84 Charing Cross Road (1987) dir. David Hugh Jones -- Based (almost verbattim) from the real life correspondence between author Helene Hanff and the manager of a rare book store in England. The two leads are sensitively played by Anne Bancroft (who got her husband Mel Brooks to produce the picture for her) and Anthony Hopkins who manage to depict a love story between two people who never actually meet.

• Shirley Valentine (1989) dir. Lewis Gilbert -- Hello, wall. The story of a beaten down, ignored and taken for granted British housewife (Pauline Collins in an Oscar-worthy performance) who one day gets fed up and takes off for a vacation in Greece. She finds herself becoming so alive there that she suddenly decides not to go home at all and to stay in Greece for good. Brilliantly written and acted. And a film which every woman I've ever known who has seen it LOVES it.
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990) dir. Tom Stoppard -- closely adapted from his own play, Tom Stoppard's film follows the misadventures of those two extremely minor characters from HAMLET. The film follows the events in Shakespeare's play but prefers to stick with the two dolts instead of following the main characters of HAMLET. Tim Roth and Gary Oldman are perfect as the dumb and dumber Shakespearean characters; sort of an Elizabethan Abbott & Costello.

Well, holy frijoles! We're almost to the end of the 100. Stay tuned for the next installment which will bring us up to the present day (Lord help us!). And there awaits for us AIDS, assassination, more AIDS, a dodgy knee, Japanese school children with assault weapons, big feet, ghosts and zombies. See you there.