Frederick Loren, from “House on Haunted Hill” (1959): Frederick Loren is a man renowned for having a great deal of money and many wives. Each of his first three wives has died under mysterious circumstances; the first simply disappeared while the second two had heart attacks, although they were healthy young women in their twenties. On a fateful ( Read more... )

Jefferson “Jeff” Jackson, from “King of the Zombies” (1941): Jeff works for Bill Summers, or “Mr. Bill” as Jeff calls him, as a valet. In reality, there are times when one wonders who is working for who - as Jeff relies on Mr. Bill for protection and assistance in all kinds of situations. Mr. Bill is a government agent, working for Naval ( Read more... )

Tor Johnson, from “Ed Wood” (1994) Tor Johnson was a wrestler who became a film star, and finally a popular Halloween mask. He was born in 1903 in Sweden, and became known as the “Super Swedish Angel” during his wrestling career, weighing as much as 400 pounds. His startling good looks were offset by his large size and shaved head, giving him an ( Read more... )

I’ve decided to do a series of lj posts based on tiny subgenres of film that I’ve discovered which interest me. For the most part, these will be subgenres of film no one would expect there to be more than one of.

For my first installment, I’ve decided to discuss movies in which

Karloff’s film career actually began with him playing a convict. ( Read more... )

Emily, from “Shanty Tramp” (1967): Emily is a tramp, a pure white trash shanty tramp. She spends her evenings roaming from man to man, looking for good times. From the preacher at the revival to the leader of a motorcycle gang that blows through town, Emily is willing to make time with them all. She doesn't even stop short of Daniel, a nice black ( Read more... )

Countess Marya Zaleska, from “Dracula’s Daughter” (1936): Countess Zaleska is the daughter of the notorious Count Dracula, who became a vampire in the 16th century, and dominated his region of Transylvania with the tyranny of the Undead. Countess Zaleska was also made a vampire and forced to live a shadow existence, sleeping in a grave by day and ( Read more... )

Adolf Hitler was born on April 20 1889, in Braunau am Inn, an Austrian village. His father, Alois Hitler was much older than his mother, Klara, who was his second wife. Alois was a customs official with something of a reputation for being a ladies’ man, who had been adopted by a guardian named Hiedler or Hütler after becoming an adult, although his ( Read more... )

Man in bus, from “Manners in Public” (1958): Ah, the poor man in bus. All he wanted was to ride the bus downtown in peace. Little did he know that bratty little Barbara, who has no manners, would come on board with her friend and ruin his whole day. Barbara was loud, obnoxious, and rambunctious, and completely inconsiderate of others. Her friend ( Read more... )

Well, one of my friends just posted a request for updates, which probably means that a number of you would like to hear what's been going on ( Read more... )

Dr. Caligari, from “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” (1919): Dr. Caligari was a possibly legendary hypnotist of the eighteenth century whose identity has been assumed by modern psychiatrists whose work with madness has brought them close to the brink (or possibly, as they themselves claim, to true sanity).

It is understood that the original Caligari ( Read more... )