Dawn's Spooktacular list of favorite Halloween films:

I'm celebrating Halloween with a alphabetical listing of my husbands and mine favorite Halloween films. Believe me... some of these Spooktaclar films, I can not watch alone.

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948). Film directed by Charles Barton and starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello. It is the first of several films where the comedy duo meets Count Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolf Man.
Please click here to read Gilby's double feature at loews Abbott review

The Birds (1963). Directed by Alfred Hitchcock based on the 1952 novel The Birds by Daphne du Maurier. It takes place in a small town called Bodega Bay, California in which is, suddenly and for no reason are attacked by birds.

The Blob (1958). Steve McQueen stars in this fun teen horror film about a blob that took over the town! Please click here to read movie review.

Bride of Frankenstein (1935). Maybe even better than the original, the movie showcases a fun performance by the very charming, Elsa Lanchester.

The Devil Doll (1936). Todd Browning's classic stars Barrymore, in drag as a prison escapee, who sends little "assassins" after his enemies...

Please click here to read movie review.

Doctor X (1932). A Halloween classic with Lionel, as a Long Island scientist suspected to be behind a series of gruesome slayings. Fay Wray co-stars.

Dracula (1931). Bela Lugosi's, well known performance as the vampire.

Please click here to read movie review.

The Fly (1958). Half man, half fly, with Vincent Price to scare you.

Frankenstein (1931). The king of horror films.

The Haunting (1963). One of the greatest of all haunted house movies without ever showing us a ghost.

Horror of Dracula (1958). With Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee together for the first time, one of the best vampire movies of the classic era.

House On Haunted Hill (1959). A sinister host, played by Vincent Price offers a group of people $10,000 each if they'll spend the night in his mansion, then makes sure that no one collects. Directed William Castle.

Video: Movie in full.

I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957). The best of the "teenage" movies, which starred Michael Landon.

The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957). Richard Matheson, wrote the novel and the screenplay for this film in which common cats and spiders become huge monsters, caused from nuclear radiation.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). When I was growing up, this was the first horror/sci-fi film that I watched.

Island of Lost Souls (1933). The original version of H.G. Wells' novel, The Island of Dr. Moreau. Charles Laughton, makes the perfect Dr. Moreau, and Bela Lugosi, who also gives a perfectly scary performance.

The Invisible Man (1933). Directed by James Whale (Frankenstein), this original version of the H.G. Wells story stars Claude Rains, who is very scary, even though he is invisible.

King Kong (1933). Wonderful special effects for its era, with a beautiful girl, and a love sick monster.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1958). One of the scariest Disney animations ever made.

The Mummy (1932). Boris Karloff and the Mummy, make a pretty scary combination.

The Old Dark House (1932). Six travelers looking for shelter from a storm in a broken down mansion in Wales, they find a very eccentric family living there. You will find plenty of scares and laughs from Frankenstein director James Whale. With Charles Laughton, Melvyn Douglas, Ernest Thesiger, Gloria Stuart.

Video: First of 5.

Psycho (1960). Hitchcock influenced many filmmakers, with this film.

The Return of Doctor X (1939). Humphrey Bogart's first and last horror film.

Rosemary's Baby (1968). A story of a woman, played by Mia Farrow, who gives birth to the Devil's child.

The Spiral Staircase (1946). Dorothy McGuire, is a servant left mute by a childhood trauma, taking care of invalid Ethel Barrymore in a scary Victorian New England mansion with a killer of handicapped women on the loose.

Please click here to read movie review.

The Uninvited (1944). Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey star in one of the classic haunted house films, set in an old house on the English coast that has a terrible secret.

Please click here to read movie review.

The Wolf Man (1941). A very scary horror film. Lon Chaney, Jr.'s best-known role. The rest of the cast is excellent, as well.

The Spiral Staircase (1945).

The Spiral Staircase (1945). Director: Robert Siodmak. Cast: Ethel Barrymore, Rhonda Fleming, Elsa Lanchester.

The story begins when, mute Helen McCord, goes to see a silent movie. Just as the film is ending, a crash is heard and the projectionist goes to see what had happened. When he gets up stairs he finds the body of a lame girl, the latest victim in a series of murders whose victims are all women with a disability. Dr. Brian Parry, examines the body.

Later while, Parry drives Helen to the house of Mrs. Warren, her invalid employer. Along the way, a young boy stops them in the road and asks the doctor to come help his mother. As the weather becomes stormy, Parry leaves Helen to walk home alone while he drives off with the boy. As Helen reaches the house, she drops her keys while a man watches her from behind some bushes.



After unlocking the door, Helen climbs the stairs to Mrs. Warren's bedroom. From the shadows the man watches her from the stairway. When she reaches Mrs. Warren's room, she warns her that she is not safe and wants her to leave immediately.  She asks her physician, Dr. Parry, to take Helen away for her own safety. When another murder occurs inside the Warren mansion, it becomes obvious that Helen is in danger.

Fun Fact:
Joan Crawford, after her performance in the film, A Woman's Face (1941), wanted the role of the deaf-mute girl played by Dorothy McGuire. Crawford also owned the rights, but MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer vehemently opposed the idea, telling her "No more cripples or maimed women".

This is a wonderful thriller, atmospheric setting, and plenty of mysterious characters that you don't know who can be trusted. Anyone, who loves classic thrillers will want to see "The Spiral Staircase".

Rhonda Fleming (born August 10, 1923), acted in more than 40 films, mostly in the 1940s and 1950s, and became renowned as one of the most beautiful and glamorous actresses of her day. She was nicknamed the "Queen of Technicolor" because her fair complexion and flaming red hair photographed exceptionally well in Technicolor.

Fleming began working as a film actor while attending Beverly Hills High School, from which she was graduated in 1941. After performing uncredited in a several films, she landed her first substantial role in the thriller, Spellbound (1945), produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. She followed this with supporting roles in another thriller, The Spiral Staircase (1946), directed by Robert Siodmak, the Randolph Scott western, Abilene Town (1946), and the film noir classic, Out of the Past (1947) with Robert Mitchum. Her first leading role came in Adventure Island (1947).

The actress then co-starred with Bing Crosby in, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949), a musical loosely based on the story by Mark Twain. Fleming exhibited her singing ability, dueting with Crosby on “Once and For Always” and soloing with “When Is Sometime.”

In 1953, Fleming portrayed Cleopatra in, Serpent of the Nile. That same year she performed in films, Inferno with Robert Ryan and the musical Those Redheads From Seattle. The following year she performed with Fernando Lamas in, Jivaro.

Some of Fleming’s other films: While the City Sleeps (1956), Slightly Scarlet, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), The Big Circus (1959)and Waiting for the Wind (1990).

During the 1950s and into the 1960s, Fleming performed on many television guest-starring roles: The Red Skelton Show, The Best of Broadway, The Investigators, Shower of Stars, The Dick Powell Show, Death Valley Days, Wagon Train, Burke's Law, The Virginian, McMillan and Wife, Police Woman, Kung Fu, Ellery Queen, and The Love Boat.

The Uninvited (1944).

The Uninvited(1944). Supernatural/ mystery/romance. film directed by Lewis Allen. It is based on the Dorothy Macardle novel Uneasy Freehold. It was nominated for a 1945 Academy Award for Best Black and White Cinematography. Cast: Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey and Donald Crisp.

The movie begins with a narration by Ray Milland: They call them the haunted shores, these stretches of Devonshire and Cornwall and Ireland. Mists gather here and sea fog and ghost stories:

Rick Fitzgerald and his sister Pamela, discover a beautiful, empty, cliff side mansion while walking along the cliffs. They follow their little dog " Bobby" inside the mansion, while chasing a squirrel. Pamela loves the house and convinces her composer, brother Rick, to buy the house as it be a wonderful place for him to work. When they go to see the owner, his granddaughter, Stella Meredith, tells them that the Windward House, is not for sale. Beech, agrees to sell the house only after telling the Fitzgeralds, that there have been complaints about strange occurrences in the house. The next day, a shopkeeper tells Rick that years earlier, Beech's daughter, Mary Meredith, fell from a cliff and died. Later, when Rick runs into Stella, he invites her to go sailing. While out on the boat, Stella tells Rick about how her mother, Mary Meredith, wore mimosa perfume and lived at Windward for three years after Stella was born.

Before he leaves for London on business, Rick asks Stella to visit Pamela at the house for tea, but when Rick returns with his housekeeper, he finds out that Stella did not come over. That night, Rick is awakened by the sound of a woman sobbing and Pamela says that she has also heard crying every night. It soon becomes obvious that the house is haunted and they go on a super natural journey, to solve the mystery of house.

Fun Facts:

Helen Walker and Veronica Lake were tested for the lead roles.

Some of the interior sets of Windwood Manor, such as the main staircase and parlor, were re-dressed sets from the 1942 film, I Married a Witch (1942).



It is a movie you will not soon forget... the house, the sound of the cries and that cliff.... Even with no gore, it will give you the chills. The acting is great and the music helps set the mood. The house was beautiful. It maybe one of your favorite thrillers.

Ruth Hussey (October 30, 1914 – April 19, 2005). While performing in a play in Los Angeles, she was spotted by MGM talent scout, Billy Grady. MGM signed her to a players contract and she made her film debut in 1937. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as, Elizabeth Imbrie, the girlfriend of Jimmy Stewart's character Macaulay Connor in the film, The Philadelphia Story(1940).

Hussey also worked with Robert Taylor in, Flight Command (1940), Robert Young in H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941), Van Heflin in, Tennessee Johnson (1942), Ray Milland in The Uninvited (1944) and Alan Ladd in, The Great Gatsby (1949), The Facts of Life(1960) with Bob Hope.

Gail Russell (September 21, 1924 – August 26, 1961) Russell's extraordinary beauty brought her to the attention of Paramount Pictures in 1942. Although she was almost clinically shy and had no acting experience, Paramount had great expectations for her and hired an acting coach to work with her.

At the age of 19 she performed in her first film, Henry Aldrich Gets Glamour (1943). Russell performed in several more films in the early and mid 1940s, the most well known, The Uninvited (1944) with Ray Milland, and Our Hearts Were Young and Gay (1944). Russell later performed in the more popular films, Calcutta (1947) with Alan Ladd, and two films with John Wayne, Angel and the Badman (1947) and Wake of the Red Witch (1948).

She continued working after 1947, and married actor Guy Madison in 1949, but by 1950, it was well known that she had become a victim of alcoholism and Paramount did not renew her contract. After a five-year absence, she returned to work co-starring with Randolph Scott, in the western, Seven Men from Now (1956) and in the film, The Tattered Dress (1957).

Thrillers and Chillers: The Devil Doll (1936).

The Devil Doll (1936). Directed by Tod Browning. Cast: A cross-dressing Lionel Barrymore and Maureen O'Sullivan. The movie was adapted from the novel Burn Witch Burn! (1936) by Abraham Merritt.

Paul Lavond, wrongly convicted of robbing his own bank more than seventeen years ago, escapes from Devil's Island with Marcel, an old scientist who is near death. Marcel wants to live with his wife Malita and a continue his work, while Paul wants revenge against the three partners who framed him for their crime. When Paul and Marcel reach Malita's home, Marcel and Malita conduct an experiment on Lachna, a young girl who works for Malita. The girl is hypnotized and shrunk to the size of a little doll. After Marcel dies, Malita still wants to continue with their work. Paul sees the doll as a way to get his revenge and they travel back to Paris. Paul disguises himself as Mme. Mandelip, an old woman who owns a toy shop and, captures others who are turned in to dolls. When he visits his mother, she tells him that, after his wife's death, his daughter Lorraine grew up poor and now works in a laundry. He goes on with his plan against his former partners. Will Lavond clear his name and win back his estranged daughter love?

I thought the film The Devil Doll, had a very interesting plot with a wonderful casting, of Maureen O'Sullivan and Frank Lawton. Lionel Barrymore is the star, and gives a wonderful performance,jumping between sympathetic and diabolical. The special effects are amazing.

Maureen O'Sullivan, best known as the jungle wife of Tarzan and mother of Mia Farrow was a classmate of Vivien Leigh. Her big movie break came when she met director Frank Borzage who was filming for Fox. In 1932 she signed with MGM and performed in nine movies at four studios. Irving Thalberg picked her to play Tarzan's Jane. She married Australian writer John Farrow, with whom she had seven children: Michael, Patrick, Maria (Mia Farrow), John, Prudence, Theresa (Tisa Farrow), and Stephanie Farrow. After her last Tarzan she asked for release from her contract to care for her husband who had just left the Navy with typhoid. She continued making occasional movies, television and stage appearances and operating a bridal consulting service.

Thrillers and Chillers: I Walked With a Zombie (1943).

Walked with a Zombie(1943). Directed by Jacques Tourneur. Cast: Frances Dee, Christine Gordon and Tom Conway. It was the second horror film from producer Val Lewton, the first was, Cat People. Lewton was given the film's title and with the help of the writers, he created the story around the title, in this case borrowing elements of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre.

Nurse Betsy Connella, tells her story in a narration how she "walked with a zombie.": Betsy is hired to care for Jessica Holland, the wife of Paul Holland, who is the owner of a sugar plantation on a Caribbean island.

That night at dinner, Betsy meets Paul’s half-brother Wesley Rand and they share a story about their mother, Mrs Rand. While getting ready for bed, Betsy hears a woman crying. She goes to see who's crying and ends up at the tower stairwell. There she sees Jessica Holland, who walks towards her like a ghost. Betsy screams for help, Paul tries to comfort her and takes Jessica back to her room.

The next morning, Betsy meets Jessica's physician, Dr. Maxwell, who tells her that Jessica sleepwalking, is caused by an incurable tropical fever.

Later, Betsy goes to town and runs into Wesley Rand, drinking himself into a stupor, while there, she hears a song about how Jessica had an affair with Wesley and was struck into a permanent state of shock. In the evening Betsy meets Mrs Rand, Wesley and Paul's mother, who is also a doctor. Back at the Fort, distant drums of a Voodoo ritual can be heard. Paul apologizes for bringing her to the island and blame's himself for his wife's condition. Betsy realizes that she is in love with Paul, in spite of his mood swings. She makes up her mind to make him happy by curing Jessica. Betsy takes Jessica on a nightmarish journey, to visit a Voodoo priest. Betsy is shocked to find who the priest really is. Will Jessica ever be cured?

A haunting, suspenseful, thriller. Loved the dash of 'Jane Eyre' and the West Indies setting. Tom Conway and Frances Dee are both very good. If you've never seen the film, I walked With a Zombie, I think you are in for a special treat!

Frances Dee, big break came when she was offered the lead opposite Maurice Chevalier in, Playboy of Paris. Later she performed in, An American Tragedy. She met actor Joel McCrea on the set of the film, The Silver Cord (1933). They married on October 20, 1933, after a whirlwind courtship, and remained married until McCrea's death in 1990.

Dee's other film credits included: June Moon, Little Women, Of Human Bondage, Becky Sharp, and Payment on Demand. She co-starred with McCrea in the film, Four Faces West (1948).

Thrillers and Chillers, Happy Birthday: Count Dracula.. I mean, Béla Lugosi !

Béla Lugosi (20 October 1882 – 16 August 1956) . Was best known for playing Count Dracula in the Broadway play and Film . Lugosi was approached in the summer of 1927 to star in a Broadway production of Dracula adapted by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston from Bram Stoker's novel.


The film: Dracula (1931). The story begins when, Renfield travels to Transylvania and is met at the castle by Dracula. Renfield soon passes out from drinking drugged wine, Dracula attacks him.  Dracula boards an England-bound ship, which also carries his coffin in which he sleeps during the day. When the ship docks in Whitby Harbor, the entire crew is found dead. Only Dracula and Renfield, who is scared out of his mind, survive. Renfield is taken to a sanitarium, where a doctor tries to figure out what is wrong with him.

One night at the opera, Dracula introduces himself to Dr. Seward and his daughter Mina, her fiance, John Harker, and friend Lucy who is later attacked and killed by Dracula .

Dracula takes advantage of his ability to transform himself into a bat to attack his next victim, Mina. She does not die immediately, but begins to change over several nights.

Van Helsing confirms for Seward and Harker that Dracula is a vampire when Dracula's reflection does not show in the mirror of a cigarette box. Even though Van Helsing, takes many precautions to prevent Dracula from getting into Mina's room. Dracula hypnotizes her maid to open the windows for him. After, Mina becomes a vampire, she tells Van Helsing that she has seen Lucy, which confirms his suspicions that she is the "woman in white" who has been attacking children. Will Van Helsing be able to find a way to resist Dracula and release Mina  from his spell? 

Bela Lugosi, became a  legend after this movie, and his performance of Dracula introduce us to the vampires, we know and love today. ;)

Fun Facts:

Cinematographer Karl Freund achieved the effect of Dracula's hypnotic stare by aiming two pencil-spot-lights into actor Bela Lugosi's eyes.

The Royal Albert Hall sequence of the movie was filmed on the same stage where The Phantom of the Opera (1925) starring Lon Chaney had been filmed.

Among the other actors mentioned as possible candidates for the role of Count Dracula were John Wray, Paul Muni, Conrad Veidt, Chester Morris, and William Courtenay.

The spider webs in Dracula's castle were created by shooting rubber cement from a rotary gun.

There was no real musical soundtrack in the film because it was believed that, with sound being such a recent innovation in films, the audience would not accept hearing music in a scene if there was no explanation for it being there (e.g., the orchestra playing off camera when Dracula meets Mina at the theatre).

Bette Davis (who had a contract at Universal at the time) was considered to play the part of Mina Harker. However, Universal head Carl Laemmle Jr. didn't think too highly of her sex appeal.

In the scene where Dracula and Renfield are traveling to London by boat, the footage shown is borrowed from a Universal silent film called The Storm Breaker (1925).

In the first scene, the young woman reading from the tourist book was played by Carla Laemmle, niece of Carl Laemmle, founder and head of Universal Pictures.

When Bela Lugosi died in 1956, he was buried wearing the black silk cape he wore for this film.

Bela Lugosi never blinks even once throughout the film.
 

Thrillers and Chillers: The Devils Mask(1946).

The Devils Mask(1946).Cast: Anita Louise, Jim Bannon , Michael Duane, Mona Barrie, Barton Yarborough, Ludwig Donath, Paul E. Burns, Frank Wilcox , Thomas Jackson , Richard Hale.

When a plane headed for South America crashes, the police find five shrunken heads in the wreckage, one with red hair. Capt. Quinn of the San Francisco police department visits the local museum to find out if any of its collection is missing. There, Quinn meets up with private detectives Jack Packard and Doc Long. Quinn shows the shrunken head to curator Raymond Halliday, who asks taxidermist Leon Hartman to examine it.

Soon after, Mrs. Louise Mitchell, the wife of museum director Quentin Mitchell, who disappeared while on an expedition in South America. Tells the detectives that a man named Rex Kennedy has been following her and believes that he may be planning with her stepdaughter Janet to kill her.

That night Janet and Rex, visit Hartman and shares their belief that Louise is romantically involved with Arthur Logan. They also believe that they murdered her father. Louise introduces the detectives to Logan, who has come to show them slides of the expedition where Mitchell disappeared. As Logan shows the slides on the screen, an unseen person shoots a blow gun at him through the window. When the butler sees the fleeing person, he is killed by a dart from the gun. The daughter from inside the house also sees the killer... does she recognise him... could it be her father?

When you mix a blackmailing psychiatrist, a crazy taxidermist, a black panther, a few characters with shady reputations, you have a wonderful atmospheric little chiller that's very entertaining.

Anita Louise, was described as one of films most fashionable and stylish women. She was best known for her Hollywood society parties .

Anita Louise best known films: Madame Du Barry (1934), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), The Story of Louis Pasteur (1935), Anthony Adverse (1936), Marie Antoinette (1938), The Sisters (1938), and The Little Princess (1939).

By the 1940s, she performed in minor roles until television in the 1950s. She played one of her most widely seen roles in the CBS television series, My Friend Flicka from 1956–1957.