Le Cercueil (The Coffin in English) is a horror themed bar located right in the heart of Brussels at 12 Rue des Harengs. This is a side street leading from the Grande Place. It has been open for over thirty years making it possibly the oldest horror themed bar in the world.
Alongside regular drinks, Le Cercueil serves up cocktails in skull shaped ceramic tankards – Corpse Urine and Demon Sperm being amongst the favourites. Tables are made from coffins, one rumoured to contain a real skeleton. Prices are a little above the norm.
Island Claws (aka Giant Claws) is a 1980 American horror film shot in Florida and directed by Herman Cardenas and starring Robert Lansing (4D Man; Empire of the Ants; The Nest), Steve Hanks, Barry Nelson (The Shining) and Nita Talbot. Special effects were by Glen Robinson (King Kong, 1976)
Island Claws is set to be released on Blu-ray from Scorpion Releasing
Reviews:
“The movie’s not scary or exciting or very good at all, but it has a seedy Floridian atmosphere that I kind of liked, and it did work hard at creating characters and a story, which I respect even if it didn’t work very well and ate up a lot of potential crabtime! And the movie’s theme music is a jaunty piece of lounge-jazz that you’ll really enjoy!” Ha Ha its Burl!
Clip from Island Claws:
“Like a lot of ‘50s B-movies, Island Claws is neither scary nor strongly scripted. The only reason worth watching is for the campiness of the film; otherwise, these crabs won’t really tickle your fancy.” Horror News
“Thrills are minimal until the monster crab attacks. The story (by Jack Cowden and underwater stuntman Ricou Browning) is predictable”. John Stanley, Creature Features
“Deep Breath” is the first episode of the eighth series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who, first broadcast on BBC One and released in cinemas worldwide on 23 August 2014. It was written by executive producer Steven Moffat and directed by Ben Wheatley (Kill List; Sightseers; Freakshift).
In Victorian London, the Paternoster Gang, comprising of Silurian Madame Vastra, her human maid and wife Jenny, and Sontaran butler Strax, are summoned by the police force when a dinosaur suddenly materialises outside the Houses of Parliament. Vastra observes that the dinosaur has something stuck in its throat, and moments later it spits out the TARDIS onto the banks of the Thames. The Paternoster Gang announce that they will deal with the dinosaur, before heading down to the TARDIS, only for the Doctor to emerge, closely followed by a confused Clara Oswald. As the Doctor deliriously begins speaking to the dinosaur, and struggles to remember who the people around him are, Clara explains that the Doctor has just regenerated. Overwhelmed, he collapses, and the Paternoster Gang take him and Clara back to their residence.
Vastra manages to trick the Doctor into sleeping, while she confronts Clara on her prejudiced attitude to his changed face. Clara admits that she is struggling to adapt to the new Doctor, due to his stark difference to the old one. The Doctor awakens and heads down to the river, hearing the dinosaur’s pleas for help due to its loneliness. However, as he arrives, closely followed by his concerned friends, the dinosaur bursts into flames. Angry and seeking answers, the Doctor discovers that this is not the first case of spontaneous combustion in London recently, and after spotting a seemingly unfazed man across the river, he jumps into the Thames to begin investigating…
Buy Doctor Who Complete Series 1 – 7 on Blu-ray from Amazon.co.uk
Reviews:
“The direction from Ben Wheatley is very effective when it comes to conveying a tense atmosphere, and there’s definitely something a little more unnerving and unpredictable about Capaldi’s Doctor that is conveyed by the visuals. Flimsy plotting aside, this is a hugely confident introduction to the new Doctor that showcases some really brilliant performances. Its ambition isn’t always realised and many of the jokes fall flat, but when the show relies on Capaldi or Coleman to sell either the quieter moments or the more hyperactive ones, it’s a delight.” Ben Cocks, Twitch
The Guardian‘s Euan Fergusonresponded positively to the episode, labelling Capaldi’s performance as “intimidating, bold and unsettling”, and praising Ben Wheatley’s direction in the episode’s tenser moments, calling it “the stuff of true terror and wonderment” although decried the plot as “demented”.
Matt Smith’s cameo as the Eleventh Doctor was criticised by Richard Beech in The Mirror. However, it ultimately labelled the episode “impeccable” and stating that Capaldi “has all the hallmarks of a great Doctor … If you watched “Deep Breath” and you don’t want to watch the rest of series 8, then there truly is something wrong with you,” he wrote.
The Telegraph’s Michael Hogan said Capaldi “crackled with fierce intelligence and nervous energy”.
“The plot runs secondary to the emotional throughline here.” wrote US critic Geoff Berkshire in Variety. But he added: “What Capaldi lacks in youthful energy, he more than makes up for in gravitas and wry eccentricity, whether marvelling at his “independently cross” eyebrows or gleefully embracing his Scottish accent as a license to complain.”
The episode was also met with negative reviews, most notably Forbes, who panned the story as “strangely recessive, unheroic, [and] dull” calling both Capaldi and Coleman’s characters “insipid”.
“Nightmare” is an episode of the original The Outer Limits television show. It first aired on 2 December 1963 – delayed from the original schedule due to the funeral service of John F. Kennedy, during the first season. It was directed by John Erman and written by Joseph Stefano (also the series writer and producer) whose writing credits include such horror works as Hitchcock’s Psycho screenplay, Snowbeast and The Kindred.
“A war between worlds has long been dreaded. Throughout recent history, Man, convinced that life on other planets would be as anxious and belligerent as life on his own, has gravely predicted that some dreadful form of combat would inevitably take place between our world and that of someone else. And Man was right. To the eternal credit of the peoples of this planet Earth, history shall be able to proclaim loudly and justly that in this war between Unified Earth and the planet Ebon, Ebon struck first. Ebon: Its form of life unknown, its way of life unpredictable. To the fighting troops of Earth, a black question mark at the end of a dark, foreboding journey”
A nuclear attack by the bleak, unexplored world of Ebon has necessitated a party to be sent from Unified Earth (U.E.) to retaliate appropriately. They are captured by Ebonites (who refer to them as ‘the unfortunate group’) before they can fulfil their mission and are physically and psychologically tortured in order to obtain the Earthling’s military secrets.
The Ebonites are significantly advanced to humans and can control all of the five senses, allowing them to make their captives, mute, blind, ‘see’ long-lost relatives and suffer incredible pain with minimal force. It soon becomes clear that one of the men has succumbed to the torture and has told the aliens more than their military code allows. However, the men soon turn on each other, their fears, past lives and own agendas soon becoming clear and just as dangerous as the aliens themselves.
The humans suffer losses through heart attacks and their own brutality but it is revealed the situation is not as first assumed – the Earth’s own military are far more heavily involved in the psychological warfare than the humans could possibly imagine and could it be that the Ebonites are actually the good guys after all?
If there is one flaw to this episode, and there is only one, it is that the ‘surprise’ is given away rather too early by the appearance of the Earth generals working alongside the Ebonites. In amongst the moral messages, of which there are many, the episode succeeds largely as it captures the elements regularly recurring in nightmares and familiar to all the viewing audience; wanting to cry out but making no sound; blindness; the inability to run away; not knowing who to trust. Then, of course, there are the monsters.
The Ebonite’s appearance is surprisingly similar to that of the monsters in the well-regarded 1972 TV movie, Gargoyles, though there is no connection in their creation. The make-up duties on “Nightmare” were handled by Fred B. Phillips, also responsible for the appearance of William Marshall in Blacula. The thick polyurethane and rubber applications were the last thing actor John Anderson needed during the September heatwave they worked through, though fortunately only he could hear the sloshing around of his own sweat within the costume as he scuttled eerily across the set. Not only was Anderson caked in make-up (and a cape for good measure), his voice was also manipulated to sound suitably alien – fortunately it did not hinder his long career in television, including four episodes of rival TV series Twilight Zone.
The beleaguered captives are played by some familiar faces; Major Jong is played by James Shigeta (Die Hard), Lieutenant Willowmore by Bill Gunn (Ganja & Hess), Captain Brookman by David Frankham (Return of the Fly), Colonel Stone by A Bucket of Blood‘s Ed Nelson and finally Private Dix by Martin Sheen (The Dead Zone) in one of his first screen roles.
This classic episode was remade in 1998 for the far inferior rehash of The Outer Limits.
Bud Westmore (13 January 1918 – 24 June 1973) was a make-up artist in Hollywood and son of George Westmore, a member of the Westmore family prominent in Hollywood make-up. He is credited on over 450 movies and television shows, including The List of Adrian Messenger, Man of a Thousand Faces, The Andromeda Strain and Creature from the Black Lagoon. For his involvement in Creature from the Black Lagoon he assisted the designer of the Gill-man, Disney animator Millicent Patrick, though her role was deliberately downplayed and for half a century, Westmore would receive sole credit for the creature’s conception – not, alas, the only time the work of others was overlooked somewhat. Westmore was also famous for the make-up for TV show The Munsters.
The Westmore Hollywood dynasty was actually headed up by Bud’s father, George, who alongside work on many Douglas Fairbanks Snr films (1924’s The Thief of Baghdad and 1921’s The Three Musketeers, to name but two) could also claim the have been Winston Churchill’s barber. After taking his family across the Atlantic to America from England, he set up Hollywood’s first make-up department.
After George’s suicide (the appropriately theatrical swallowing of mercury), his sons carried on the dynasty; Monte was much associated with MGM until his early death of a heart attack following surgery; Perc became head of Make-up at Warner Bros; Wally himself became Make-up chief at Paramount; Ern worked at 20th Century Fox and low-budget film studio Eagle-Lion, but his career was hampered by an alcohol problem; Bud became head at Universal, and the youngest, Frank, was more freelance and later wrote a book on the family, The Westmores of Hollywood in 1976.
Bud Westmore was born Hamilton Adolph, but changed his first names to George Hamilton both in tribute to his father and after the rise of Hitler made Adolph an unpopular name in the US. After free-lancing in the 40s (including work at “Poverty Row” studio PRC on the classic noir Detour in 1945), Westmore joined Universal, replacing the Godfather of monster make-up, Jack Pierce, as head of the make-up department. Although Bud worked on every conceivable genre of film, it was for his work creating monsters and aliens for horror, science fiction and fantasy films that he is best remembered, beginning with mega-cheapies such as Strangler of the Swamp, The Flying Serpent and Devil Bat’s Daughter (all 1946) until he finally made something of a breakthrough in 1948 in the (slighter) higher budget, Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein – later to cover the comedy duo’s meetings with The Invisible Man, The Mummy, The Killer, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and The Keystone Cops.
Westmore worked at a furious pace and, truth be told, this can be seen in his somewhat basic style, lacking the intricate and ingenious work of the likes of Pierce and making easy to apply prosthetics and cheap and cheerful frights. Many have also questioned how much of the work Westmore is credited for can truly be attributed to him, never more so than with 1954’s Creature From the Black Lagoon. For many years, the creature’s design and creation was solely credited to Westmore, though we are now able to cite the original conceptual designs, drawings and paintings to Millicent Patrick and a good deal of the actual creation as being from the hands of Jack Kevan.
Westmore continued to work relentlessly (or appear to at least), throughout the 50’s and 60’s, amongst the atomic age beasties were particularly notable works on James Cagney for the Lon Chaney biopic, Man of a Thousand Faces, and the creation of the make-up for the long-running television series, The Munsters. Here he was able to fully lampoon not only the work of others but also himself, at last the perfect marriage. Sadly, a combination of industry back-biting and financial belt-tightening meant that by 1970, Universal had cast Westmore adrift and the insolvent make-up artist did his final work for MGM’s Soylent Green in 1973. His legacy may be over-shadowed by doubts over his hands-on input but there can be little doubt that the giant bud-headed creatures of the 1940’s and 1950’s would be a little less memorable without him, to the extent that the largest building in Universal’s back-lot is named after him.
The Strangler of the Swamp The Flying Serpent Devil Bat’s Daughter Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein The Strange Door The Black Castle Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde It Came From Outer Space Creature from the Black Lagoon Revenge of the Creature The Mole People Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy Cult of the Cobra This Island Earth Tarantula The Creature Walks Among Us The Deadly Mantis The Monolith Monsters The Thing That Couldn’t Die Monster on the Campus Curse of the Undead The Leech Woman The Night Walker The Munsters Dark Intruder Let’s Kill Uncle Eye of the Cat Night Gallery The Andromeda Strain Soylent Green
Not Human aka Omnibus: Alien Invasion is a 2013 American sci-fi horror film directed by Adam R Steigert. It stars Jason John Beebe, Robert Bozek and Bill Brown.
Not Human is being released on VOD on September 9, 2014 with the DVD/Blu-ray release in December 2014.
Plot teaser:
Metzburgh is a quiet village which was a former industrial town whose glory days are long past after the collapse of Metzburgh Grain. Teenager Mark Lowe (Jason John Beebe) and his ex-girlfriend Lucy Greenheart (Sarah Manzella) are stuck in a lovers quarrel when a meteorite crash lands in the passive community. Glen (Robert Bozek ), an ex-employee of the grain silos who became homeless after the collapse of the mills, stumbles upon the fiery crash. Unaware that his find could be dangerous, he gets too close and a chemical poison sprays out of the meteorite, enveloping him. The chemical agent known as Ombis begins to turn his insides into a slimly substance. Unable to stop the spread of the infection, Glen runs onto the road where Mark and Lucy find him. The two take him to the only Doctor in town, Doctor D (Deborah Manzella) Mark and Lucy are shocked by their gruesome discovery and immediately contact the local Sheriff Thomas Brackett (Richard Satterwhite) who is on a date with a lovely waitress Daisy (Kathy Murphy). With their date being interrupted, they aid the traumatized love birds. With no sign of the creature or its victims, Brackett dismisses Mark’s fantastic story…
‘They shared the pleasures of the flesh and the horrors of the grave!’
Vampyres – also released as Daughters of Dracula; Vampyres, Daughters of Dracula; Vampyres: Daughters of Darkness; Satan’s Daughters and Blood Hunger – is a 1974 British erotic vampire horror film directed by José Ramón Larraz. The film’s delightfully discordant score was by James Kenelm Clarke who directed Exposéaka House on Straw Hill a year later.
A novelisation was belatedly published in 2001 by Tim Greaves via FAB Press.
Though initially heavily censored in the UK, an uncut Blu-ray was released in the USA on 30 March 2010 by Blue Underground, including a commentary by director José Ramón Larraz and producer Brian Smedley-Aston, interviews with stars Marianne Morris and Anulka, the international trailer, and the U.S. trailer.
Plot teaser:
Two beautiful undead women roam the English countryside, luring unsuspecting men to their estate for orgies of sex and blood. But when an innocent young couple stumble into the vampires’ lair, they find themselves sucked into an unforgettable vortex of savage lust and forbidden desires…
‘ … quite decent, achieving some good shock moments and showing a taste for the sombre visual…’ Films Illustrated, 1974
‘A non-too-original idea loses through poor acting and the film that emerges is a stock sex-horror exploitation vehicle that gets better direction than it deserves’. Alan Frank, The Horror Film Handbook (Batsford, 1982)
‘… the film is essential viewing for the serious aficionado of British screen terror. Even as the decades pass, it remains one of the most haunting and atmospheric pieces ever committed to celluloid. Few films of such limited funding can claim to be the subject of continued celebration so long after their lensing.” Tim Greaves, Ten Years of Terror (FAB Press, 2001)
Curse of the Fly – promoted as The Curse of the Fly – is the second and final sequel to the 1958 version of The Fly. It was released in 1965, and unlike the other films in the series was produced in England. The film was directed by Don Sharp (The Kiss of the Vampire; Witchcraft; Psychomania) and the screenplay was written by Harry Spalding. It stars Brian Donlevy (Quatermass), George Baker, Carole Gray, Yvette Rees, Rachel Kempson, Burt Kwouk, Jeremy Wilkins, Charles Carsan and Mary Manson.
This film was rarely seen for many years, as it was the only entry in the entire Fly film franchise that did not receive a videotape or laserdisc release. It did not receive its home video premiere until 2007, when it was released in a DVD boxed set with the original series of films.
Plot teaser:
Martin Delambre (Baker) is driving to Montreal one night when he sees a young girl by the name of Patricia Stanley (Gray) running along in just her white underwear. They fall in love and are soon married. However, they both hold secrets: she has recently escaped from a mental asylum; he and his father Henri (Donlevy) are engaged in radical experiments in teleportation, and they have already had horrific consequences. Martin also suffers recessive fly genes which cause him to age rapidly and he needs a serum to keep him young.
In a rambling mansion in rural Quebec, they have successfully teleported people between there and London. However, there had been many failures producing horribly disfigured and mad people who are locked up in the stables. Martin’s first wife is one of them. The police and keeper of the asylum trace Stanley to the Delambre place where they find out she has married Martin but it comes out that he had a previous wife whom he did not divorce. Inspector Charas, who had investigated Andre Delambre and is now an old man in the hospital, tells the policeman about the Delambre family and their experiments…
Reviews:
‘There’s still a few other things to like about Curse, such as its lush black and white Cinemascope photography and its quaint, shadowy sets. Its performances are all adequate enough too, even if you do really find yourself missing Vincent Price. In the end,, though, it falls under the category of being a pretty decent standalone film that just happens to be a bad entry in its series; horror fans who have grown up with franchises are used to continuity errors, but you can drive trucks through the ones presented here.’ Brett Galman, Oh, the Horror!
‘It IS a bit slow though. There’s very little action (even of the human on human variety), and since it’s only tangentially related to the first films (the only returning character is the cop from the first movie, played by a new actor) it’s sort of like starting over, which means they can’t speed things along like a normal sequel could. We have to meet everyone, get their back-stories, set up the new storyline, etc. The romantic scenes probably take more screen-time than anything involving failed teleporter victims. It all pays off, but by this point in mid 60s, horror films tended to be a little more exciting (and in color); this one almost feels like an early 50s film at times.’ Horror Movie a Day
‘In any event, no one involved in its creation seems to have given much thought to the idea that this movie most likely takes place some 70 years after The Fly. But taken on its own terms, with only minimal reference to its two predecessors, The Curse of the Fly is a thoughtful, well-crafted film that deserves far better than has been its lot in life.’ 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting
Andrew Williams is a shy, awkward high school student with a straight ‘A’ average and a horrifying secret: He was born the Antichrist, the profane incarnation of Lucifer himself. While senior year can be Hell for some teenagers, Andrew unleashes the real thing bringing demonic carnage and the horrors of Satan to gym class and beyond. Now that the legions of the undead have risen, some very unexpected archangels are gathered and on the eve of the Second Coming the final horrific battle for the unholy soul of mankind is about to begin…
Fear No Evil was 26 year-old writer/director/co-producer/composer LaLoggia’s debut, and had a budget of $840,000. The films origin came about when producer Charles M. LaLoggia discovered the filming location of the Boldt Castle in Alexandria Bay, New York. LaLoggia thought it was an ideal place to set a horror film and approached his cousin director Frank LaLoggia to write a film around the location.
The film features a punk rock/new wave soundtrack with songs by Patti Smith, The Rezillos, Talking Heads, Ramones, Boomtown Rats, The B-52’s, Richard Hell and Sex Pistols.
Avco Embassy Pictures apparently picked up the film for release solely based on the fact that zombies were featured.
“Overall, the film is a little too uneven to really recommend, but it has a few sequences which genuinely work up some grotesque dread, and even more that are memorably crazy if not entirely successful. Like its central antagonist, it can be hard to tell what it’s really trying to do, and even when it seems to know it’s not always great at pulling it off. But its still pretty interesting to watch something this weird develop, even if you can’t quite figure out what its going for. The mystery of whether or not LaLoggia is a director worth serious study remains unsolved, but I’d say this movie is a net gain for the world.” We are Cursed to Live in Interesting Times
“For all its impressive goals, the movie does seem amateurish in spots near the end, despite a game cast and some inventive staging. The climax seems hokey. The son of the Devil looks too glam rock to be truly scary—but who said the Dark Prince ever had any fashion sense? At least Satan once again gets it on with some babes, or at least his spawn does. It’s a strange mix of styles, culled from Italian horror and Hammer productions with a uniquely American twist. You have to give them points for going for broke with an unconventional twist on a tale that was also taken on—with a much bigger budget—by the Omen series.” DVD Verdict
“Fear No Evil is the rare 80s horror movie that actually has a story. In fact, it has so much story that I found myself scratching my head at many points and yawning at others. I hate to say this is a bad thing — based on the number of mindless horror movies I’ve seen — but the pacing is so weak, by the time the zombies showed up I almost didn’t care. I say “almost” because the last 15-20 minutes is just great, it just seems like it takes forever to get there.” Exploitation Retrospect
The Washing Machine – Italian title: Vortice Mortale, translation: “Deadly Vortex” - is a 1993 French/Italian/Hungarian horror thriller directed by Ruggero Deodato (Cannibal Holocaust). It stars Philippe Caroit, Ilaria Borrelli andKatarzyna Figura. Claudio Simonetti provided the score.
A police detective investigates the murder of a man found dismembered in a washing machine and is drawn into a web of deceit and murder by the dead man’s lover, Vida, and her two sisters, Sissy and Ludmilla…
Buy The Washing Machine on Shameless DVD from Amazon.co.uk
UK sleeve design by Graham Humphreys, also available in a Limited Edition tin case.
Reviews:
“Overall, it’s a very entertaining murder mystery with a seedy element that works in its favour so if you liked the slick stylings of Basic Instinct but felt that it needed a bit more softcore sleaze then you’ll probably find The Washing Machine very much to your taste.” Deviant Robot
“The Washing Machine is no classic, mind you; there’s far too much narrative flab for that. Italian television writer Luigi Spagnol’s script piles on the intrigue, but it’s too rambling when it should be twisting the suspense screws; too unfocused when it should be razor sharp. Moreover, both he and Deodato can’t quite keep the pace going; it kicks off with a bang but peters out before ending with a nonsensical damp squib. There’s still plenty to enjoy though in this stylish and entertaining potboiler; it won’t convert anyone to the church of bloody Italian chills, but it’ll certainly satisfy the parishioners already worshipping within it.” UK Horror Scene
“It’s a decent last flick, as it’s quite entertaining, it’s got a good enough and engaging story, a fair amount of nudity and eroticism and a little nod at Deodato’s previous cannibal themed movies, which make it a great entry into the late thriller – post Gialli catalogue.” CiNEZiLLA
” …while there’s a lack gore (there’s really only one grisly scene – a bloodied torso gets repeatedly hacked at) and sex (there’s lots of heavy panting but the girls keep their knickers on), Deodato dresses his giallo with elements of high camp, while also making effective use (a la Argento) of the creaky old Art Nouveau Budapest apartment in which the twisted sisters reside.” Peter Fuller, Kult Guy’s Keep
Dr. Fu Manchu is a fictional character introduced in a series of novels by British author Sax Rohmer during the first half of the 20th century. The character was also featured extensively in cinema, television, radio, comic strips and comic books for over 90 years, and has become an archetype of the evil criminal genius while lending the name to the Fu Manchu moustache. He is by far Rohmer’s most famous character, though he wrote many other stories including murder-mysteries, several novels of supernatural horror, including Brood of the Witch-Queen, described by Adrian as “Rohmer’s masterpiece” and The Romance of Sorcery, the mystery-solving magician character Bazarada based on his friend, the famed magician and escapologist, Houdini.
A master criminal, Fu Manchu’s murderous plots are marked by the extensive use of arcane methods; he disdains guns or explosives, preferring dacoits, Thuggee, and members of other secret societies as his agents armed with knives, or using “pythons and cobras … fungi and my tiny allies, the bacilli … my black spiders” and other peculiar animals or natural chemical weapons.
In the 1933 novel, The Bride of Fu Manchu, Fu Manchu claims to hold doctorates from four Western universities. In the 1959 novel, Emperor Fu Manchu, he reveals he attended Heidelberg, the Sorbonne, and Edinburgh. At the time of their first encounter (1911), Dr. Petrie believed that Fu Manchu was around 70 years old. This would have placed Fu Manchu in the West studying for his first doctorate in the 1860s or 1870s.
According to Cay Van Ash, Rohmer’s biographer and former assistant who became the first author to continue the series after Rohmer’s death, “Fu Manchu” was a title of honour, which meant “the Warlike Manchu.” Van Ash speculates that Fu Manchu had been a member of the Imperial family who backed the losing side in the Boxer Rebellion. In the earliest books, Fu Manchu is an agent of the secret society, the Si-Fan and acts as the mastermind behind a wave of assassinations targeting Western imperialists. In later books, he vies for control of the Si-Fan which is more concerned with routing Fascist dictators and halting the spread of Communism. The Si-Fan is largely funded through criminal activities, particularly the drug trade and white slavery. Dr. Fu Manchu has extended his already considerable lifespan by use of the elixir vitae, a formula he spent decades trying to perfect.
Opposing Fu Manchu in the early stories are Denis Nayland Smith and Dr. Petrie. They are in the Holmes and Watson tradition, with Dr. Petrie narrating the stories while Nayland Smith carries the fight, combating Fu Manchu more by dogged determination than intellectual brilliance (except in extremis). Nayland Smith and Fu Manchu share a grudging respect for one another, as each believes a man must keep his word even to an enemy.
Fu Manchu’s daughter, Fah lo Suee, is a devious mastermind in her own right, frequently plotting to usurp her father’s position in the Si-Fan and aiding his enemies within and outside of the organisation. Her real name is unknown; Fah lo Suee was a childhood term of endearment. She was introduced anonymously while still a teenager in the third book in the series and plays a larger role in several of the titles of the 1930s and 1940s. She was known for a time as Koreani after being brainwashed by her father, but her memory was later restored. She is infamous for taking on false identities, like her father, among them Madame Ingomar and Queen Mamaloi. In film, she has been portrayed by numerous actresses over the years. Her character is usually renamed in film adaptations because of difficulties with pronunciation.
After the 1932 release of MGM’s adaptation of The Mask of Fu Manchu, which featured the Asian villain telling an assembled group of “Asians” (consisting of caricatural Indians, Persians and Arabs) that they must “kill the white men and take their women”, the Chinese embassy in Washington issued a formal complaint against the film.
Following the 1940 release of Republic Pictures’ serial adaptation of Drums of Fu Manchu, the US State Department requested the studio make no further films with the character as China was an ally against Japan. Likewise Rohmer’s publisher, Doubleday, refused to publish further additions to the best-selling series for the duration of the Second World War once the United States entered the conflict. BBC Radio and Broadway investors subsequently rejected Rohmer’s proposals for an original Fu Manchu radio serial and stage show during the 1940s.
The re-release of The Mask of Fu Manchu in 1972 was met with protest from the Japanese American Citizens League, who stated that “the movie was offensive and demeaning to Asian-Americans.”
It was Rohmer’s contention that he based Fu Manchu and other “Yellow Peril” (!) mysteries on real Chinese crime figures he knew during his time as a newspaper reporter covering Limehouse activities.
In May 2013, this again received media’s attention as General Motors pulled an advertisement after receiving complaints that it included a song containing reference to “the land of Fu Manchu”.
The character of Fu Manchu became a stereotype often associated with the threat from Eastern Asia. Fu Manchu has inspired numerous other characters, and is the model for most villains in other Oriental crime thrillers. Examples include Pao Tcheou, Ming the Merciless from Flash Gordon, Dr Goo-Fee from Fearless Fly, L’Ombre Jaune/ Monsieur Ming from Bob Morane, Li Chang Yen from The Big Four, James Bond adversary Dr No, The Celestial Toymaker from the Doctor Who story of the same name, Dr Benton Quest’s archenemy Dr Zin from the Jonny Quest television series, Dr Yen-Lo from The Manchurian Candidate, Lo-Pan from Big Trouble in Little China, Marvel Comics foes the Mandarin and the Yellow Claw, DC Comics’ Rā’s al Ghūl, Wo Fat from the CBS TV series Hawaii Five-O, “The Craw” in more than one episode of Get Smart, Ancient Wu from the video game True Crime: Streets of LA, and “Fu Fang” in The Real Ghostbusters NOW Comics. Fu Manchu and his daughter are the inspiration for the character Hark and his daughter Anna Hark in the comic book series Planetary. Interestingly, though the style of facial hair associated with him in film adaptations has become known as the Fu Manchu moustache, Rohmer’s writings described the character as wearing no such adornment.
The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu (1913) (US Title: The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu).
The Return of Dr Fu-Manchu (1916) (UK Title: The Devil Doctor)
The Hand of Fu Manchu (1917) (UK Title: The Si-Fan Mysteries)
Daughter of Fu Manchu (1931)
The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932)
The Bride of Fu Manchu (1933) (original US Title: Fu Manchu’s Bride)
The Trail of Fu Manchu (1934)
President Fu Manchu (1936)
The Drums of Fu Manchu (1939)
The Island of Fu Manchu (1941)
The Shadow of Fu Manchu (1948)
Re-Enter: Fu Manchu (1957) (UK Title: Re-Enter: Dr. Fu Manchu)
Emperor Fu Manchu (1959) was Rohmer’s last novel.
The Wrath of Fu Manchu (1973) was a posthumous anthology containing the title novella, first published in 1952, and three later short stories: “The Eyes of Fu Manchu” (1957), “The Word of Fu Manchu” (1958), and “The Mind of Fu Manchu” (1959).
Ten Years Beyond Baker Street (1984). The first of two authorised continuation novels by Cay Van Ash, Sax Rohmer’s former assistant and biographer. The novel is set in a narrative gap within The Hand of Fu Manchu and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes story, His Last Bow (both published in 1917). Holmes comes out of retirement to aid Dr Petrie when Nayland Smith is abducted by the Si-Fan.
The Fires of Fu Manchu (1987). The second of two authorised continuation novels by Cay Van Ash. The novel is set in 1917 and documents Smith and Petrie’s encounter with Fu Manchu during the First World War culminating in Smith’s knighthood. A third Van Ash title, The Seal of Fu Manchu was underway when Van Ash died in 1994. The incomplete manuscript is believed lost.
The Terror of Fu Manchu (2009). The first of three authorised continuation novels by William Patrick Maynard. The novel expands on the continuity established in Van Ash’s books and sees Dr Petrie teaming with both Nayland Smith and a Rohmer character from outside the series, Gaston Max in an adventure set on the eve of the First World War.
The Destiny of Fu Manchu (2012). The second of three authorised continuation novels by William Patrick Maynard. The novel is set between Rohmer’s The Drums of Fu Manchu and The Island of Fu Manchu on the eve of the Second World War and follows the continuity established in the author’s first novel.
The Triumph of Fu Manchu was announced in 2013. The third of three authorised continuation novels by William Patrick Maynard. The novel is set between Rohmer’s The Trail of Fu Manchu and President Fu Manchu.
The League of Dragons by George Alec Effinger was an unpublished, unauthorised novel involving a young Sherlock Holmes matching wits with Fu Manchu in the nineteenth century. Chapters have been published in the anthologies, Sherlock Holmes in Orbit (1995) and My Sherlock Holmes (2003). This lost university adventure of Holmes is narrated by Conan Doyle’s character Reginald Musgrave.
Fu Manchu also made appearances in the following non-Fu Manchu books:
Anno Dracula (1994) by Kim Newman. An alternate histories adventure with Fu Manchu in an anonymous cameo appearance as one of the London crime lords of the nineteenth century. He also appears in Newman’s Moriarty: The Hound of the D’Urbervilles in several of the stories that make up the book. He is never named by name, but the references are quite clear.
“Sex Slaves of the Dragon Tong” and “Part of the Game” are a pair of related short stories by F. Paul Wilson appearing in his collection, Aftershocks and Others: 19 Oddities (2009) and feature anonymous appearances by Dr Fu Manchu and characters from Little Orphan Annie.
Fu Manchu also appears anonymously in several stories in August Derleth’s Solar Pons detective series. Derleth’s successor, Basil Copper also made use of the character.
Fu Manchu is the name of the Chinese ambassador in Kurt Vonnegut’s Slapstick (1976).
It is revealed that Chiun, the Master of Sinanju has worked for the Devil Doctor, as have previous generations of Masters in The Destroyer novel No. 83 Skull Duggery.
Fu Manchu first appeared on the big screen in the 1923 British silent film serial The Mystery of Dr. Fu Manchu starring Harry Agar Lyons. Lyons returned to the role the next year in The Further Mysteries of Dr. Fu Manchu.
In 1929 Fu Manchu made his American film début in Paramount’s early talkie, The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu starring Warner Oland, best known for his later portrayal of Charlie Chan in the 1930s. Oland repeated the role in 1930’s The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu and 1931’s Daughter of the Dragon as well as in the short, Murder Will Out as part of the omnibus film, Paramount on Parade where the Devil Doctor confronts both Philo Vance and Sherlock Holmes.
The most infamous incarnation of the character was MGM’s The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932) starring Boris Karloff and Myrna Loy. The film’s tone has long been considered racist and offensive, but that only added to its cult status alongside its campy humour and Grand Guignol sets and torture sequences. The film was suppressed for many years, but has since received critical re-evaluation and been released on DVD uncut.
Fu Manchu returned to the serial format in 1940 in Republic Pictures’ Drums of Fu Manchu, a 15-episode serial considered to be one of the best the studio ever made. It was later edited and released as a feature film in 1943.
Other than an obscure, unauthorised 1946 Spanish spoof El Otro Fu Manchu, the Devil Doctor was absent from the big screen for 25 years, until producer Harry Alan Towers began a series starring Christopher Lee in 1965. Towers and Lee would make five Fu Manchu film through the end of the decade: The Face of Fu Manchu (1965), The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966), The Vengeance of Fu Manchu (1967), The Blood of Fu Manchu (1968), and finally The Castle of Fu Manchu (1969).
The character’s last authorised film appearance was in the 1980 Peter Sellers spoof, The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu with Sellers featured in a double role as both Fu Manchu and Nayland Smith. The film bore little resemblance to any prior film or the original books. In the film, Fu Manchu claims he was known as “Fred” at public school, a reference to the character of “Fred Fu Manchu” from The Goon Show which had co-starred Sellers.
Jess Franco, who had directed The Blood of Fu Manchu and The Castle of Fu Manchu, also directed The Girl From Rio the second of three Harry Alan Towers films based on Rohmer’s female Fu Manchu character, Sumuru. He later directed an unauthorised 1986 Spanish film featuring Fu Manchu’s daughter, Esclavas del Crimen.
In 1956, the television arm of Republic Pictures produced a 13-episode syndicated series, The Adventures of Dr. Fu Manchu starring Glen Gordon as Dr. Fu Manchu, Lester Matthews as Sir Denis Nayland Smith, and Clark Howat as Dr. John Petrie. The title sequence depicted Smith and Fu Manchu in a game of chess as the announcer stated that “the Devil is said to play for men’s souls. So does Dr. Fu Manchu, Evil Incarnate.” At the conclusion of each episode, after Nayland Smith and Petrie had foiled Fu Manchu’s latest fiendish scheme, he would be seen breaking a black chess piece as the closing credits rolled. It was directed by noted serial director Franklin Adreon as well as William Witney. Unlike the Holmes/Watson type relationship of the films, the series featured Smith as a law enforcement officer and Petrie as a staff member for the Surgeon General.
In 1990, TeleMundo broadcast an affectionate spoof, The Daughter of Fu Manchu featuring Paul Naschy as the Devil Doctor and starring the Hispanic comedy troupe, The Yellow Squad.
Although now seemingly out of favour after a lifetime of accusations of racial stereotyping, Fu Manchu, still appears in the ‘safer’ environment of comics and graphics novels and also the musical world, lending his name to the stoner rock band and the Frank Black song of the same title.
Exists is a 2014 American horror film directed by Eduardo Sánchez (The Blair Witch Project; ParaAbnormal; Lovely Molly) from a screenplay by Jamie Nash (Two Front Teeth; Altered). It stars Dora Madison Burge (Humans versus Zombies; Dexter), Brian Steele (Dylan Dog: Dead of Night; Underworld: Evolution), Samuel Davis (From Dusk Till Dawn TV series), Denise Williamson (Spirit Camp; Renfield the Undead; Killer School Girls from Outer Space), Roger Edwards (Circus of the Dead) and Chris Osborn (The Vampire Diaries).
Earlier this summer, Exists won the Audience Award for Best Film at the SXSW Film Festival. Lionsgate are releasing the film across the United States on October 24th.
Plot teaser:
A group of friends who venture into the remote Texas woods for a party weekend find themselves stalked by Bigfoot…
The Body Shop – aka Body Shop; Shrieks in the Night and later retitled Doctor Gore – is a 1973 American horror film written, directed and starring former TV horror host and magician J.G. Patterson Jr. The film was originally titled Anitra, as can be glimpsed on the film’s slate board, lazily included in the trailer!).
It stars Jenny Driggers (as the aforementioned Anitra), Roy Mehaffey, Linda Faile, Jan Benfield, Jeannine Aber, Candy Furr, Vickie O’Neal and Jerry Kearns. Future directors Worth Keeter (credited as the “special horror consultant”) and William Girdler (credited with music, music editor and sound effects) also worked on the film.
Patterson worked on a number of Herschell G. Lewis’ in a special effects capacity and was associate producer on The Gruesome Twosome (1967). He also produced Axe (1974). He died of cancer in 1975 in Charlotte, North Carolina (he chain smokes throughout The Body Shop).
Mad scientist Dr. Don Brandon (J.G. Patterson Jr.) loses his wife Anitra in a tragic car accident. He and his hunchback assistant Gregory begin kidnapping women for re-animation experiments to bring her back to life…
Reviews:
‘Equally not as thought-out is Patterson’s point-and-shoot direction, inert enough to make Lewis look like a Palme d’Or contender. Shots of a two-character conversation don’t match; one scene begins with the clapboard in clear view, as if Patterson simply didn’t care anymore. His alarming ineptitude is exactly what Doctor Gore, also known as The Body Shop, has going for it.’ Rod Lott, Flick Attack
‘Amidst nonsensical and frequent jump cuts, an amazing electronic and organ-based score, and ghastly, but theatrical looking gore, you STILL have J.G. Patterson’s giant head and hilarious musical interludes with country singer Bill Hicks. Dialogue is insane and hilarious. Doctor Gore is a fantastically bizarre movie and should be heralded as a classic. You’ll laugh, cringe, and drop your jaw.’ Bleeding Skull!
“Frankly, I’m surprised that Patterson managed an entire 75 minutes out of the film. Even with the padded scenes (some that deliver about 15 seconds worth of information can stretch five minutes), it’s obvious the man didn’t know how to get good coverage. There’s numerous instances where footage is repeated or outtakes are used to extend the scene (there’s a memorable instance of the clapboard being withdrawn hastily from the shot). Patterson constantly smokes throughout the film, but he can’t seem to maintain continuity on a single one of those cancer sticks. They just leap in and out of his mouth like bad magic.” Nate Yapp, Classic Horror
A team of U.S. archaeologists unearths an ancient pyramid buried deep beneath the Egyptian desert. As they search the pyramid’s depths, they become hopelessly lost in its dark and endless catacombs. Searching for a way out, they become desperate to seek daylight again. They come to realize they aren’t just trapped, they are being hunted…
Carol Hammond is a sophisticated politician’s daughter who experiences a series of vivid, psychedelic nightmares drenched in depraved sex orgies and LSD. The dreams turns into a nightmare featuring the death of her neighbour, Julia Dürer. The next day Julia is found brutally murdered in her own apartment.
The investigation, conducted by Inspector Corvin, leads to Carol’s arrest, however she is released after a mysterious man confesses to Scotland Yard that he is the murderer. Not convinced of Carol’s innocence, Corvin continues to investigate the murder and unearths new disturbing clues … Did Carol really do it or is she being framed? Where do her dreams end and reality begin?
The scene in which Carol encounters the disemboweled dogs in the clinic became quite controversial because of the startlingly realistic (and graphic) appearance of the fake prop dogs. Director Lucio Fulci was nearly sent to prison because it was believed that the dogs were real and Fulci had allowed animal cruelty on the film. However crew members were able to testify in court that the “dogs” were indeed fake and no animals had ever been harmed. Special effects artist Carlo Rambaldi even presented the dog props in court to convince the jury. This was the first time that an effects artist had to testify in court that their work was fake.
Parts of the film were shot at Woburn Abbey after the Duke and Duchess of Bedford granted permission. The then disused Alexandra Palace in North London also features.
Buy A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin in its most complete version from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
Reviews:
Overall the film is a great experience. Lines between dream and reality are blurred on a regular basis, leaving the viewer appropriately bewildered. Various gory nightmare sequences are mixed with erotic dreams to create an unsettling contrast. And the suspense and mystery holds itself to the ingenious conclusion. All in all this giallo comes highly recommended.” Blood Sucking Geek
“Forget the rather blatant silliness of it all, A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin is a tremendous film. It is one of the finest examples of the giallo genre available – a taut, clever and supremely controlled whodunit with enough lurid content (gore, nudity, demented characters) to keep even the most jaded Gumshoe hooked. It’s also one of the crowning achievements of director Lucio Fulci’s long and illustrious career.” Sex Gore Mutants
“The acting was average, the plot, more or less, original, the dialogue was acceptable if a little over the top. There’s nothing terribly wrong with the film and I’m sure people who enjoy this genre will find a lot to like here. But that distance, that unwillingness to let the audience get too wound up in what was going on, left me cold.” DVD Verdict
Four months later, history is about to repeat itself. What begins as a humorous comedy of errors quickly becomes a Darwinian gore fest, and what unfolds is a cerebral yet repulsive journey through the history and nature of humanity and ‘civilization.’ With four distinct clans vying for supremacy and survival in the woods of New Hampshire, less than 24 hours will pass before a slew of lives have been claimed and the last of the living remains…
Review:
“It’s a unique movie that you won’t feel unfamiliar with, and that’s just one of its many tricks. Slew Hampshire actually requires you to think about it after its done, and how often does that happen with movies that essentially show themselves to be shlock horror? This is shlock, exploitation, creature feature, teen comedy and Darwinism, all trapped in the middle of the woods. So basically – fun, a little confusing and reeks of filth.” Film Bizarro
The Girl is a 2014 American horror film directed by Jennifer Blanc-Biehn (Almost Dead) based on a screenplay by Lony Ruhmann (The Night Visitor; Fetish Factory; Hellevator Man). It stars her husband Michael Biehn (The Terminator; Bereavement; Hidden in the Woods), Tia Carrere (Zombie Nightmare; Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated), Evie Louise Thompson, Tristan DeVan, Dana Daurey, Nick Nicholson, Raven Carrell, Jenise Blanc, Lorraine Ziff, Tanya Newobould, and Hallie Jordan.
House of Manson chronicles Charles Manson’s life from childhood up until his arrest following the raid on Barker Ranch months after the infamous Tate/LaBianca murders that sent a shockwave not just through Los Angeles but throughout the entire world…
Charles Manson has been a hot topic as of late due to NBC’s upcoming TV series “Aquarius” starring David Duchovny, the recent 45th anniversary of the Tate and LaBianca murders, a new New York Times bestselling book about Manson’s life, as well as the recent engagement announcement to his 26-year-old girlfriend.
Allegedly House of Manson will have a harder edge than other Manson-related productions.
Schramm is a 1993 Germanhorror film directed by controversial taboo-breaking auteur Jörg Buttgereit and starring Florian Koerner von Gustorf, Monika M., Micha Brendel and Carolina Harnisch .
Lothar Schramm is a polite, neighbourly cab driver who makes an honest living and invites callers in for cognac. Later on, he might slit their throats and assemble their bodies in suggestive poses. He lives next door to a young, beautiful prostitute named Marianne, with whom he is smitten. Schramm is lonely. His sex life is seriously deranged and his social life is nonexistent. He makes love to inflatable plastic dolls, fantasizes about vaginas with teeth, nails his foreskin to tables and dreams of a visit to the dentist who extracts him an eyeball. He has constant flashbacks and paranoid delusions of his knee getting amputated. He whitewashes bloodstains off the walls of his flat. When Marianne is invited by some affluent gentlemen clients to a villa outside of town, she asks Schramm to chauffeur her so she’ll be safe. He accepts and he invites her to a friendly dinner, ignoring his desire for her. He takes her back to his flat, where he drugs her and strips her. He snaps photos and masturbates spitefully over her naked body…
The film is stylish and artfully shot on 16mm film as per usual with Buttgereit. It is loosely based on true crime criminology profiles of Carl Panzram and similar serial killers.
“Schramm is not a film for everybody and won’t be a good choice to convert the uninitiated into the realm of European horror. However, adventurous souls will be more receptive to Buttgereit’s quirky vision, which has become more refined and impressive with each film. As usual, some of his camera angles and his use of music are extremely impressive considering the limited financial means, and some of the special effects are a little too realistic for comfort. Mondo Digital
“Schramm is a nifty looking package that seems like it is empty inside. Give me a reason to care, for anyone, and I might. Yet, there was none given, at least in my eyes. But at least we have a nifty eye-gouging scene and a three nails being hammered into a penis (VERY cringe worthy).” Arrow in the Head
“Jörg Buttgereit’s 1993 film Schramm features one of the more unique killers to ever grace the screen. Even the way the story is told and the events that unfold are not as straight forward or easy to digest as most viewers are used too. The film is filled with stark imagery that at times is beautiful and most of the time it is downright disgusting. There is a raw texture to this film that almost makes it feel like we are watching someone’s home movies and not a film.” 10k Bullets
Though it goes without saying that King Kong continues to hold the crown as the reigning monarch of the great apes in film, spare a thought to consider the long parade of committed actors who sweat, pestered picnickers and sweat some more in the demanding field of gorilla impersonation. Before we begin, it is worth noting that it wasn’t until the 1860’s that Westerners were first able to lay their eyes on the real beast, being something of a curiosity even at the beginning of the 20th Century. Consider this an apology for some very dodgy early costumes.
The Gorilla is a 1927 American silent horror film directed by Alfred Santell based on the play of the same name by Ralph Spence. The film stars Charles Murray, Fred Kelsey, and Walter Pidgeon (in virtually his first screen role). The plot of the film revolves around a series of murders committed by a man in an ape suit. The film was remade with sound in 1930 and 1939. The creator of the suit was Carlos Cruz Gemora (June 15, 1903 – August 19, 1961), commonly known as Charles Gemora, a former Hollywood make-up artist renowned as “the King of the Gorilla Men” for his prolific appearances in many Hollywood films while wearing a gorilla suit.
Gemora was born on the island of Negros in the Philippines, and arrived in San Francisco as a stowaway. He quickly found work at the Brentwood fruit farm in Colusa, CA. and eventually moved to Los Angeles. He earned money doing portrait sketches outside of Universal Studios where his talents were discovered and put to work in the studio’s sculpture department for The Hunchback of Notre Dame.When creating a gorilla suit Gemora found his 5’4″/163 cm stature made him a natural to wear the suit himself beginning with The Leopard Lady in 1928.
Gemora’s study of real gorillas at the San Diego Zoo and his expertise on makeup gave him an extensive career as a gorilla opposite such luminaries as Our Gang (Bear Shooters), Lon Chaney (The Unholy Three), Bela Lugosi (Murders in the Rue Morgue), Laurel and Hardy, (The Chimp & Swiss Miss), The Marx Brothers (At the Circus), Bob Hope and Bing Crosby (Road to Zanzibar), The Great Gildersleeve (Gildersleeve’s Ghost), Abbott and Costello (Africa Screams) and Robert Mitchum (White Witch Doctor).
With men in gorilla suits no longer providing the same scares in the 1950s as they did in the 1930s and ’40s, Gemora moved his creature expertise into science fiction films such as the Martian in War of the Worlds and I Married a Monster from Outer Space. Gemora died of a heart attack in August 1961 while he was working on the make-up of the film Jack the Giant Killer.
The rise of the Tarzan movie led to shonky gorillas enjoying their heyday in the 1930’s. Two actors in particular were responsible for inflicting jungle mayhem upon cinema audiences around this time – Ray ‘Crash’ Corrigan and Steve Calvert.
Steve Calvert (born Steven Stevens in June 1916, died 5 March 1991 in Los Angeles) was a prolific gorilla suit performer in many Hollywood films and television shows from the late 1940s through the 1950s. He took the stage name Calvert from Calvert Whisky. Calvert appeared in Bride of the Gorilla, The Bowery Boys Meet the Monsters, the serial Panther Girl of the Kongo, Ed Wood Jr’s The Bride and the Beast, in Road to Bali with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby and appeared in the second part of the title role of Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla.
Subsequently, Calvert appeared again with Lugosi at the 1953 Hollywood premiere of House of Wax, at which Lugosi arrived in his Dracula costume, leading the furry-suited Calvert on a leash. Among his television work is at least one appearance with Buster Keaton which Calvert called “the best thing I ever did. He was a pure pantomime artist.”) and an episode of Adventures of Superman, “Jungle Devil.” In the tradition of other gorilla men playing space monsters, Calvert played a robot that was meant to be an entire army of robots in Target Earth as well as the robot in The Bowery Boys Meet the Monsters in scenes which did not involve the ape. Circus clown Billy Small frequently came aboard when Calvert needed a second “ape,” such as in Bride and the Beast..
Dismayed by a lack of steady work and suffering a heart attack, Calvert retired from film work in 1960. That year, Target Earth producer Herman Cohen approached Calvert about playing the title role in Konga but as Calvert had sold his costumes to Western Costume, Cohen was forced to rent an alternate ape suit from stuntman/actor George Barrows, though Barrows himself did not appear in the suit in the film.
Ray “Crash” Corrigan (February 14, 1902 – August 10, 1976), born Raymond Benard, was an American actor most famous for appearing in B-Western movies. He also performed stunts and frequently appeared in a gorilla costume at both the beginning and end of his film career; Corrigan owned his own ape costume. His career in Hollywood began as a physical fitness instructor and physical culture trainer to the stars. In the early 1930s he did stunts and bit parts in several films. Many of his early roles were in ape costumes – for example, as a Gorilla in Tarzan and His Mate (1934) and an “Orangopoid” in the original Flash Gordon serial. In 1936 he got his break with starring roles in two Republic serials, The Vigilantes Are Coming and in Undersea Kingdom from which Benard adopted his character’s name “Crash Corrigan” (that evoked memories of “Flash Gordon”) as his own.
Despite his best efforts, his on-screen work largely returned to appearing in ape costumes – for example, the title roles in Captive Wild Woman (1943), Nabonga (1944), White Pongo (1945) and as a prehistoric sloth in Unknown Island (1948). The original gorilla “mask” seen in films like The Ape (1940) was replaced with a subtler design with a more mobile jaw. In 1948 he sold his gorilla suits and provided training to Steve Calvert. Calvert stepped in Corrigan’s pawprints beginning with a Jungle Jim film. Despite reports to the contrary, Calvert and Corrigan never appeared together in ape costume. Since both Corrigan and Calvert eschewed screen credit as gorillas, credits are often confused. Any appearance of the “Corrigan suit” after 1948 is Calvert. Corrigan’s last film was playing the title role of It! The Terror from Beyond Space.
And so to George Barrows, if not the most famous then surely, historically, the most-unloved, the majority of his performances being uncredited. George D. Barrows (February 7, 1914 – October 17, 1994) was an American actor known for playing Ro-Man in the film Robot Monster. He was the son of actor Henry A. Barrows. Excluding his gorilla roles, Barrows usually played bit parts in films and was rarely credited for his work. Barrows built the gorilla suit he used in Robot Monster,Gorilla at Large, and other films. It is currently in the collection of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
Easing himself to the world of apes, he appeared only as a henchman in the 1951 film, Mark of the Gorilla but by 1953 had donned his famous suit as part of an Abbott and Costello television show before the infamous semi-gorilla suit of Ro-Man.
Further roles included Gorilla At Large (1954), a spot on The Red Skelton Hour, Black Zoo (1963), The Addams Family, The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966) and other TV show such as The Beverley Hillbillies, The Lucy Show and The Incredible Hulk in the 1978 episode, ‘The Beast Within’. As mentioned, his suit was used in the film,Konga in 1961 but it was a stuntman who was cast within. Sadly, little care was given to the suit and various holes and adjustments were made to allow the actor to fit in – the suit was never fully returned to its ‘spectacular’ original state.
Cinematic apes were nearing their natural lifespan. Special effects were moving on and it would be almost disrespectful to both parties to mention the Planet of the Apes cycle of films in the same breath. The ‘art of ape’ did live on in one man, however – Rick Baker. A student of make-up artists from eras past, it was entirely in Baker’s philosophy to eschew special effects and commit to reality-based illusions. From one of his first paying gigs in John Landis’ Schlock (1973) right through the 1980’s Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan of the Apes, Gorillas in the Mist) and as late as 1998’s Mighty Joe Young remake, men in suits have continued to give life to gorillas.
Image may be NSFW.
