Up in Smoke

I've always found the candid photos of Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi very curious.

Karloff always seems so relaxed ... one might say disengaged. Lugosi, on the other hand, always looks so concentrated and intense.

Karloff, a heavy smoker, succumbed to emphysema, while Lugosi to heart failure.

Though I never knew either, I miss them both.

The Tomb of Dracula

We were just looking at Marvel's black and white magazine, Dracula Lives!, but we would be remiss if we did not also remember its excellent full-color comic, The Tomb of Dracula.

Dracula Lives!

Does he ever!

Dracula Lives! was Marvel's black and white magazine companion to its color comic book, The Tomb of Dracula.

It's magazine status allowed for more adult fare, though both Dracula publications were of a very high caliber. I certainly wish I could find similar fare on today's magazine stands...

Dracula A.D. 1972

We mentioned Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee yesterday and that got me thinking about their two "modern era" Dracula films.

I would never pretend that Dracula A.D. 1972, or its sequel, The Satanic Rites of Dracula, were "good" films in any objective sense. But I certainly enjoyed Cushing's role as a modern day occult investigator. Both movies have a real Sax Rohmer vibe, and I would've loved it Hammer had jettisoned Dracula and made a series about Cushing's occult investigator.

Yet another missed opportunity...

All Aboard the Horror Express

The kind of film Hammer should have been making...

Horror Express is a cracker-jack science fiction-cum-gothic horror film. Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee are rival scientists trapped aboard a speeding train with a homicidal alien inhabiting the body of a prehistoric man. (Trust me ... it's much better than it sounds!)

Cushing and Lee hardly ever played better against one another, and the movie zips along at breakneck speed. There are multiple public domain copies out there, but if you can find a good copy, grab it and enjoy.

When Monsters Are Mad

Here is some delicious advertising art by Frank Frazetta for Mad Monster Party.

I love this movie immoderately.

But You Can't Hyde...

Yesterday we looked at the Airmont Classics cover for The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, featuring an illustration influenced by the Frederic March makeup.

Here is an atmospheric photo from the later Spenser Tracy version, lavishly produced by MGM. I've always been of two minds on this -- it always seemed too reserved for its own good. However, when it works (e.g., everything with Ingrid Bergman and some of Tracy's performance as Hyde), it's quite wonderful. I just wish there was a touch more ... sizzle.