Monsters We ' Ve Know & Loved Rare 16mm Film Lugosi, Karloff, Chaney, Creatures
Item History & Price
| Reference Number: Avaluer:31155201 | Non-Domestic Product: No |
| Language: English | Modified Item: No |
| Era: 1960s | Features: Dubbed |
Episode of
Hollywood and the Stars
Monsters We've Known and Loved
Lon ChaneyBoris Karloff
Bela LugosiVincent Price
Peter Lorre
Here is a 16mm print of the TV show on Hollywood history; Hollywood and the Stars. This 1964 show featured different stars and film genres in various episodes.
This is one of the most sought after episodes Monsters We've Known and Loved. It features clips from many classic early creature, monster, vampire, werewolf and... other scary movie creatures. Some really rare scenes are included from some films that are almost impossible to see today. The print is in B & W with only light wear. Mounted on a 1200ft reel. It was a half hour TV episode.
The print runs well through the projector. See fame scans above.
The print is on one 1200ft reel. See the frame scans from the actual print for more detail of condition.
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Full description of the commentary and what is included in this print (spoiler alert!) From the Cinema 4 Pylon webpage......
Within the first minute, we shift from film to film swiftly, starting with the werewolf from Return of the Vampire (1943), Peter Lorre being tormented by the disembodied hand in The Beast with Five Fingers (1946), the mutated title monster from Bert I. Gordon's The Cyclops (1957), a woman screaming in full closeup at the alien creatures from Invasion of the Saucer Men (also 1957), and Ray Harryhausen's six-tentacled octopus from It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955). Then Cotten begs us, "Now, don't send the children to bed. We want all of you to meet Monsters We've Known and Loved, on Hollywood and the Stars!" Cue the theme music, title sequence, and opening credits, while a hand slowly claws its way from out of a grave.
When the show returns from what would have then been a commercial break, there is a flash of lightning and the house from Psycho is revealed on the screen. Cotten says, "Vampires, werewolves, and ghouls. These nightmare creatures embody the universal dread of the grave; the shadows, the unknown. They strike some deep chord within us. Through them, and with no risk to ourselves, we dabble in forbidden worlds of mystery, madness, and malevolence. And we have the dubious pleasure of being frightened out of our wits!" While all of this is said, we see a coffin open as a vampire prepares to rise, we see a werewolf transform, and a man is attacked within a tomb by a random ghoul.
With a flourish of the cape of Dr. Caligari and a closeup of Cesare's sleeping face, Cotten then announces that Germany in the 1920s is the birthplace of the horror film. OK, you can make that argument, but it's not totally accurate. Regardless, the shift is towards historical perspective instead of random scenes, which is a welcome one. Other German productions such as Nosferatu and The Golem are granted scenes before the shift jumps over to Hollywood with the original version of The Cat and the Canary (1927). Willis O'Brien's still wonderful effects in 1925's The Lost World are displayed next, but then the timeline reverts quite a bit back to 1920, giving the lie to Cotten's earlier statement, by showing a scene from John Barrymore's still remarkable dual turn as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, including the transformation done without in-camera effects.
Cotten introduces the viewer to Universal Studios, which will become the acknowledged House of Horror for decades, starting with the ascendancy of Lon Chaney, Jr. We see clips of Chaney behind the scenes preparing for his role as Quasimodo, and then a rogues gallery of his other roles, finishing his stellar performance as Erik in The Phantom of the Opera (1925). The silent screen turns to sound, and Cotten gives a full introduction to Bela Lugosi as the "King of the Vampires" but the clips we see are from Return of the Vampire, not from any of his Universal or even MGM work.
Cotten says "The sound era also makes a big to-do about mad doctors and their infernal machines" and we see the numerous actors such as Preston Foster, Lionel Atwill, George Zucco, and Lon Chaney, Jr. Cotten then gives us introduction to "the maddest doctor of them all" (and Lugosi's "rival"), Boris Karloff. At this point in the show, it is clear we are not going to be shown any clips from the classic Universal films, though with Karloff's section we do get stills from some of his famous roles, including those for Universal. (Val Lewton's productions are only name-checked by The Body Snatcher (1945) amongst these roles.) We also get a fun clip from a publicity film of the two "rivals" preparing to play chess for charity.
When it comes back from the midway break, we get to see an animatronic lobby version of King Kong from newsreel footage while Cotten talks about "the phenomenal success of King Kong that started a trend from which we've never recovered." Clips are then shown from Mighty Joe Young (1949), but while Cotten talks about "a primitive beast on a rampage against civilization, " I had to remind myself that the rampage in the clips is Joe defending himself in the nightclub, and that he is the hero of the film, which has a happy ending with Joe saving an entire orphanage from fire and being returned to his job. Joe is not actually a monster (just an ordinary gorilla with a big heart), and Mighty Joe Young is nowhere close to being a monster movie.
"Today, the anxieties of the atomic age and the challenge of the space era open even wider vistas for the monster movie." And so begins the science fiction section of the show, with scenes from Earth vs. Flying Saucers (1956), It Came from Beneath the Sea (again), The Amazing Colossal Man (1957), and Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958). Roger Corman gets into the show with Attack of the Crab Monsters, and even the Three Stooges sneak in (though they are never seen) with the giant fire-breathing tarantula scene from Have Rocket, Will Travel (1959) (the individual shots in the scene, by the way, are shown completely out of sequence). There is the surprising addition of the big blob from Hammer's Enemy from Space (aka Quatermass 2, 1957).
The Thing from Another World is met in battle by the men at the arctic post, and then Harryhausen is given a little more love in this episode by the inclusion of one of my favorite of his films, 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957), featuring the Ymir. Cotten, or rather the writers of the script, misidentify the Ymir as "a Martian lizard, " when in fact, the creature comes directly from Venus. But no matter... [Pushes glasses back off of nose and snorts...]
Surprisingly, The Beast of Hollow Mountain's climactic scene is included, with a cowboy tricking the title dinosaur into quicksand to perish (which he probably wouldn't), and then astronauts are attacked by It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958). Another personal favorite sneaks in with The Monster That Challenged the World (another 1957 flick), though once more there is an identification problem when Cotten calls the creature a giant caterpillar. The creature in this film is meant to be a form of prehistoric mollusk, though were it made today, it would probably be identified as an isopod. (To be fair, the monster does look like a giant caterpillar.) Truly awful special effects are represented by the inclusion of The Giant Claw (man, 1957 was a grand year, wasn't it?), a bird flick that really is for the birds (but I still rather love it).
The show moves to its final brief section, shifting the focus to the 1960s and a type of horror film "which is meant to be funny". We see Peter Lorre and Vincent Price as they film their latest feature, Jacques Tourneur's The Comedy of Terrors, and scenes from their previous film together, Roger Corman's The Raven (both 1963). Finally, we get a clip from Ray Dennis Steckler's execrable The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?, which makes Cotten cry, "Oh, where have they gone, the werewolves and the mummies, the Draculas and the Frankensteins. Perhaps if we had shown them a little more love, they would still be with us." THE END
