Gimmicks! Hypno-Vista and the Horror's Of The Black Museum (1959)

HYPNO-VISTA!!! Who can resist a gimmick like that, I certainly can't. I mean lets be honest doesn't everyone want to be put in the picture and "feel the acid vat of death!" 

Well like most gimmicks Hypno-Vista amounts to nothing more than a 15 min. tacked on prologue to delightfully lurid little British shocker produced by Herman Cohen. Michael Gough gives a wickedly over the top performance as the arrogant Edmond Bancroft, a crime columnist/novelist who is always one step ahead of Scotland Yard in investigating a series of brutal/gimmicky murders. Why is he smarter the the Law? Well thats because he's behind this crime wave, planning murder after murder from his own personal Black Museum and with the aid of his unaware hypnotized assistant. 

This is one of those movies that I first experienced in the early 1970's on NY's WPIX 11's Chiller Theater when I was just a little monster. It's a fun little thriller that certainly didn't need hypnosis to improve it. Come to think of it Hypno-Vista would be so useful with todays crop (or is it crap) of films, there are quite a few I'd like to be mentally induced into forgetting. 

Add this movie to your collection...
http://www.amazon.com/Horrors-Black-Museum-Michael-Gough/dp/B000087F3A

Happy Birthday Mel Blanc (1908-1989)

YOG Monster From Space (1970)

Dracula: Prince Of Darkness (1966) on WNEW's Drive-In Movie

Back in the 1980's I could be found glued to my TV on Saturday afternoons watching NY's WNEW channel 5's Drive-In Movie. Looking back their double features were the equivalent of having a Grindhouse movie experience in your own home. The films were a smorgasbord of exploitation: grainy Kung Fu movies, biker flicks, teen sex comedies, Japanese Kaiju epics, classics from American International Pictures and Hammer Horror films. Of course it was the horror/sci-fi flicks I tuned in for, and for me it was the opportunity to see some of those films for the first time. 


If your interested go to http://www.dvddrive-in.com/TV%20Guide/driveinmovie5.htm
for a terrific article and complete listing of films aired.

Here is WNEW's preview for Dracula Prince Of Darkness...


...the original theatrical trailer...



...and a couple of posters too...

Hammer Glamour: Ingrid Pitt

For two decades (mid-50s thru 70's) ravenous horror fans were served a gore-met feast of Grand Guignol by the British studio Hammer Films. They re-introduced Frankenstein and Dracula to audiences (in bloody technicolor) and launched the careers of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Hammer dominated horror cinema worldwide with their particular blend of gothic atmosphere, a little bit of blood, sex appeal and glamour. Hammer Glamour is an affectionate term used to describe the damsels in distress and femme-fatales that graced the studios films through the years. 

Every week I'm going to post some Hammer Glamour, begining with that voluptuous vamp Ingrid Pitt...

Add a some Hammer Glamour to your movie collection...

http://www.amazon.com/Countess-Dracula-Vampire-Lovers-Ingrid/dp/B00009PY48/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1275345986&sr=1-1

or check out Marcus Hearn's book Hammer Glamour...

http://www.amazon.com/Hammer-Glamour-Marcus-Hearn/dp/1848562292/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275346123&sr=1-1

Happy Birthday Vincent Price (1911 - 1993)

"I've come to believe remembering someone is not the highest compliment - it is missing them." - Vincent Price








"I think that art, and the appreciation of art, is curiosity about life and the capacity for wonder. The expression...really sums up my entire philosophy of life...the capacity for wonder." - Vincent Price

Sears : "I felt that here at last was a chance to expose the U.S. public to fine art at reasonable prices."
- Vincent Price



"I don't play monsters. I play men besieged by fate and out for revenge."
- Vincent Price



"I’ve been enchanted by Poe ever since I was forced to read him as a kid. The American people relegated him to a second place in the history of American literature. In the rest of the world, Poe is considered to be our major contribution to literature. He invented the detective story, he influenced all of the great French poets: Baudelaire, Valery, Verlaine, as well as all of the great English poets. And almost every major artist of the 19th century illustrated Poe: Gustave Dore, Edouard Manet, Odilon Redon. His influence on the world of art was enormous.” - Vincent Price



The Tomb Of Ligeia : “It captures the flavor of Poe, more closely than any of the others.” - Vincent Price



"Tim Burton`s Vincent (1982) was immortality - better than a star on Hollywood Boulevard."
- Vincent Price



In a career spanning six-decades Vincent appeared on stage, television and in 100 feature films, less than half would fall into the horror / sci-fi category. He considered this his favorite film...

Happy Birthday to three Titans of Terror