Old Dark House (Wm. Castle) in '60s Horror and Sci-Fi Forum

0 Points

Forum Jump

Old Dark House (Wm. Castle)

Author	Comment
TomWeaver999	Old Dark House (Wm. Castle)	Lead	[-]
Oct 21 09 7:09 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	It was on TCM last night so I recorded it and I'm going to bite the bullet and finally see it. It's a movie I guess I've been kind-of avoiding my whole life. Well, actually, I've already started watching -- but 15 minutes in, I already need a break. I can just tell that there's not going to be one laugh in it. How "nice" that the people doing the credits screwed-up and called the original J.B. Priestley novel THE OLD DARK HOUSE instead of BENIGHTED. Then, a few seconds later, we get a full-screen PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY WILLIAM CASTLE ... which fades out ... and then DIRECTED BY WILLIAM CASTLE appears. I may have to watch this in installments over a few nights ... or more. Last Edited By: TomWeaver999 Oct 21 09 7:53 PM. Edited 1 time.
Rakshasa		#1	[-]
Oct 21 09 7:13 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	TomWeaver999 wrote: Then, a few seconds later, we get a full-screen PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY WILLIAM CASTLE ... which fades out ... and then DIRECTED BY WILLIAM CASTLE appears. LOL! And they said overkill was dead! Links To All The Classic Monster Stills I've Posted: http://monsterkidclassichorrorforum.yuku.com/topic/30758
HalLane		#2	[-]
Oct 21 09 7:37 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	The opening credits were nice, by Charles Addams. We even get to see him sign his name to them, right across the screen. Unless that was William Castle's hand doing the signing. The girl in the red sweater is fun to watch.
Koukol 5		#3	[-]
Oct 21 09 7:41 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	HalLane wrote: The girl in the red sweater is fun to watch. She's also "fun" in CARRY ON SCREAMING Last Edited By: Koukol 5 Oct 22 09 3:10 PM. Edited 1 times.
TomWeaver999		#4	[-]
Oct 21 09 8:46 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	According to the Hammer book by Tom Johnson, this was made in 1962 and it took 'til '66 (!) to get it released in the U.K. I guess they knew it would be a bomb. And so did Boris Karloff. In one of his '60s interviews, he talked about "his" OLD DARK HOUSE, then segued into saying that he'd turned down a role in an English remake because it deviated too much from the original picture. "I sent back the script. Wanted no part in it. After all, I've been in the acting profession for more than half a century. High time to pick and choose my vehicles." And then he went off and picked and chose CAULDRON OF BLOOD, all those rancid Jack Hill flicks, etc. Last Edited By: TomWeaver999 Oct 22 09 9:34 AM. Edited 1 times.
Rakshasa		#5	[-]
Oct 21 09 8:52 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	TomWeaver999 wrote: And then he went off and picked and chose CAULDRON OF BLOOD, all those rancid Jack Hill flicks, etc. It's sometimes difficult to stand by your convictions as the years roll by. He probably decided (and/or was advised) at some point that, for his body, his mind, and maybe his wallet, keeping active took precedent over the material itself. I think that happens to a lot of people and explains why we saw guys like John Agar running around in things like Larry Buchanon movies (as one example). Links To All The Classic Monster Stills I've Posted: http://monsterkidclassichorrorforum.yuku.com/topic/30758 Last Edited By: Rakshasa Oct 21 09 8:54 PM. Edited 1 times.
TomWeaver999		#6	[-]
Oct 21 09 9:14 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I got about 35 minutes "in" and called it a night. It's not anything I can watch in one straight shot. According to IMDb, the old lady gambler in the opening scene is played by the same ol' gal who played the ancient Abigail Crain, dying while pounding her cane on the wall, in THE HAUNTING.
davlghry		#7	[-]
Oct 21 09 9:27 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	HalLane wrote: The opening credits were nice, by Charles Addams. We even get to see him sign his name to them, right across the screen. With a hairy monster hand. And that's when the film stops being interesting.
doctor kiss		#8	[-]
Oct 22 09 8:09 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Koukol 5 wrote: HalLane wrote: The girl in the red sweater is fun to watch. She's equilly fun in CARRY ON SCREAMING Fenella Fielding, now aged eighty-one and still stealing any show in which she performs... including, recently, a video play for the British Film Institute about the making of the 1923 sci-fi picture RADIO MANIA (link; she can be seen in pics 3 & 9). I spoke to her a decade or so ago, while she was in incredibly fine fettle, having come directly from an open-air performance of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera in which she was starring in London's Holland Park; and she remarked how, all these years on, people continued to approach her almost daily about CARRY ON SCREAMING (YouTube link with recollections from Fenella), while most had better taste than ever to bring up THE OLD DARK HOUSE. Last Edited By: doctor kiss Oct 22 09 8:11 AM. Edited 1 times.
HalLane		#9	[-]
Oct 22 09 8:48 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Wow, she still looks great. And that voice! Thanks for the links and the input, doctor!
CreepingBride		#10	[-]
Oct 22 09 9:06 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	doctor kiss wrote: Fenella Fielding, now aged eighty-one and still stealing any show in which she performs... including, recently, a video play for the British Film Institute about the making of the 1923 sci-fi picture RADIO MANIA (link; she can be seen in pics 3 & 9). I spoke to her a decade or so ago, while she was in incredibly fine fettle, having come directly from an open-air performance of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera in which she was starring in London's Holland Park; and she remarked how, all these years on, people continued to approach her almost daily about CARRY ON SCREAMING (YouTube link with recollections from Fenella), while most had better taste than ever to bring up THE OLD DARK HOUSE. Repeat after me (3 times and fast): "I found Fenella Fielding in fine fettle."
Bill Warren		#11	[-]
Oct 22 09 2:05 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	When he was making GAMES for Universal, Curtis Harrington poked around the vaults, looking for James Whale's OLD DARK HOUSE. And then he found it, hurrah! He booked a screening room and invited lots of people to see it; I know that Bob Bloch and Forry Ackerman were amont those attending the screening. Curtis sat back happily as the projector started--and then on screen appeared something like "Hammer presents a William Castle Production."
Koukol 5		#12	[-]
Oct 22 09 3:17 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	HalLane wrote: Wow, she still looks great. And that voice! Thanks for the links and the input, doctor! Yes...thanks Doc! "Rubbatitti!"
Here 4 help		#13	[-]
Oct 22 09 3:19 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	According to the Hammer book by Tom Johnson, this was made in 1962 and it took 'til '66 (!) to get it released in the U.K. I guess they knew it would be a bomb. Its painfully unfunny - but it also had real censorship problems in the UK because the BBFC insisted that all of the CU's of the corpses be removed before it could be given an A certificate (equivalent to the PG). The version that was eventually released in the UK with an A ran only 76m as it also got trimmed down so it could be a double-bill. I believe the original US cinema prints were b/w. The prints now circulating are the full uncut 83m version (or is it 86m) and in colour.
TomWeaver999		#14	[-]
Oct 22 09 6:05 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	>> Curtis sat back happily as the projector started--and then on screen appeared "Hammer presents a William Castle Production." << I'd love to think that story's not true; Harrington struck me as too bright a guy to assume, just because a title was written on a box, that he should fill up a theater before LOOKING in the box. It coulda been a damaged-unrunnable print, it coulda been a negative, it coulda been dubbed in Chinese, it coulda been a print of MA & PA KETTLE in a mislabeled box, it coulda been a cinder block. Sheesh. William Everson thought he found the lost THE GHOUL a bunch of times, and every time it turned out to be a print of THE MAD GHOUL. I'd like to think he didn't invite all his friends over every time!
Cueva Muerte		#15	[-]
Oct 22 09 6:34 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Not old, not dark...just a house. And yeah, the original U.S. release prints were in black-and-white; a la Dr. Blood's Coffin, Terror of the Tongs and Vengeance of Fu Manchu. Fielding's pretty much the whole show. "When Patrick McGoohan asked her (Fenella F.) to be the voice that hails the villagers in his 1967 The Prisoner, she recalls, "He told me not to be too sexy. I mean," she adds, "such a thought would never have occurred to me."
Bill Warren		#16	[-]
Oct 22 09 6:56 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Why, of COURSE Tom wants to think my story's not true, if only because it's MY story. Which I heard from Bob Bloch, Forry Ackerman--and Curtis himself. He found the film in a can that was clearly for a print, not a negative; he unrolled a bit of the film to make sure OLD DARK HOUSE was written on the leader, which it was. The vault's inventory listed it as the Whale film. Curtis was simply so thrilled at finally finding--or so he thought--the Holy Grail of James Whale fans that he acted hastily. Last Edited By: Bill Warren Oct 22 09 6:58 PM. Edited 1 times.
TomWeaver999		#17	[-]
Oct 22 09 7:39 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	<< Tom wants to think my story's not true, if only because it's MY story. Which I heard from Bob Bloch, Forry Ackerman--and Curtis himself. << Welllll ... then it's THEIR story, no?
Bill Warren		#18	[-]
Oct 22 09 7:44 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Tom never thinks anyone else's stories are true, no matter who they heard it from. They're true only if TOM heard them.
HalLane		#19	[-]
Oct 22 09 7:53 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Cueva Muerte wrote: "When Patrick McGoohan asked her (Fenella F.) to be the voice that hails the villagers in his 1967 The Prisoner.... Yes! I sure thought she sounded like that Prisoner voice. Thanx for the confirmation! And color me surprised that this thing was in color. Nice to know I wasn't imagining it being in black and white (too).
TomWeaver999		#20	[-]
Oct 22 09 10:05 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	<< Tom never thinks anyone else's stories are true, no matter who they heard it from. << Where'd you hear that?? Untrue! Last Edited By: TomWeaver999 Oct 22 09 10:13 PM. Edited 1 times.

<< Previous Topic Next Topic >>

Add Reply

Yuku free message boards

Old Dark House (Wm. Castle)

Old Dark House (Wm. Castle)