TCM's Halloween Celebration!

[Ardath Bey]

All month long, Turner Classic Movies channel will be airing horror films of yesteryear every Tuesday and Sunday evening. TCM is your finest choice in classic cinema. Every movie and documentary is presented uncut and completely commercial-free. Following showtimes are EST but check local listings.

October 5

The Mummy (1959) 8:00PM
Curse of Frankenstein (1957) 9:30PM
Phantom of the Opera (1925) 12:00AM
Freaks (1932) 2:00AM
Mad Love (1935) 3:15AM
Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933) 4:30AM

October 7

The Mummy (1932) 8:00PM
The Walking Dead (1936) 9:15PM
Frankenstein (1931) 10:30PM
Bride of Frankenstein (1935) 11:45PM
Son of Frankenstein (1939) 1:15AM
Bedlam (1946) 3:00AM
The Ghost Ship (1943) 4:30AM

October 12

Horror of Dracula (1958) 8:00PM
Dracula, Prince of Darkness (1966) 9:30PM
Mark of the Vampire (1935) 11:00PM
Nosferatu (1922) 12:15AM
Dracula (1931) 2:00AM
House of Dark Shadows (1970) 3:30AM

October 14
Doctor X (1932) 4:00AM

October 19

The Reptile (1966) 8:00PM
Plague of the Zombies (1966) 10:00PM
The Unknown (1927) 12:00AM
Hunchback of the Norte Dame (1939) 1:00AM
The Seventh Victim (1943) 3:00AM
Children of the Damned (1964) 4:30AM

October 24

The Haunting (1963) 9:30PM

October 26

The Devil's Bride (1968) 8:00PM
Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974) 10:00PM
Eyes of the Mummy (1918) 12:00AM
I walked with a Zombie (1943) 1:15AM
Cat People (1942) 2:30AM
Curse of the Cat People (1944) 3:45AM

October 28

The Raven (1935) 8:00PM
The Black Cat (1934) 9:15PM
The Body Snatcher (1945) 10:30PM

October 29

Freaks (1932) 8:00PM
Devil Doll (1936) 9:30PM
Wolf Man (1941) 11:00PM

October 30

The Unknown (1927) 8:00PM
The Hunchback of the Norte Dame (1923) 1:15AM
Phantom of the Opera (1925) 3:00AM

October 31

Frankenstein (1931) 8:00PM
Bride of Frankenstein (1935) 9:30PM
Son of Frankenstein (1939) 11:00PM
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994) 1:00AM




- Bold type are my most recommended viewings.

[Jhoram Hyde]

October 12 will be a night showcasing cinamatic vampire greats. Beginning at 8pm EST, will be Christopher Lee's first role as the venerable filmscream Count in the Hammer Films production Horror of Dracula (1958). Followed by Lee's return to the role after a eight year hiatus in Dracula, Prince of Darkness. Unfortunately many Hammer Films productions concentrated more on pure shock value and it has had a notable dated effect on the movies. With their entirely english accents and campy buxom babes, in my opinion, the original Universal pictures were far more superior than their Hammer Films reproductions and these will always remain timeless classics. Universal were also infamous for their detailed elaborate sets, and their gothic or art-inspired architecture/decor too.

These films will be followed by an unusual horror mystery called Mark of the Vampire starring Bela Lugosi, Lionel Barrymore, Elizabeth Allen, Lionel Atwill, and Richard Arlen (Island of Lost Souls). A murder in a small town and vaudeville actors attempt to solve it posing as vampires. Surprise ending, directed by Tod Browning (Dracula, Freaks, etc).

Nosferatu (1922), F.W. Murnau's silent masterpiece and the first film adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula. Featuring Max Schreck as Count Orlock. Remains one of the greatest and most influential vampire movies ever made. Effectively creepy and atmospheric. Filmed in Bavaria. There were copyright difficulties with Stoker's then living widow and thus Dracula was replaced with the name Orlock. Personal fav.

Dracula (1931) Tod Browning's masterpiece featuring the relatively newcomer, hungarian actor Bela Lugosi. This film is second to none save for Murnau's Nosferatu which in my opinion is a far superior cinematic re-telling of Dracula. But this movie is all about Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula. His performance is impeccable, the character's speech and mannerisms are masterfully delivered. Not a single flaw. Also don't miss Dwight Frye's equally creepy performance as the demented, bug-devouring Renfield. Before Darth Vader there was Lugosi's Dracula. ;)

Ending the evening will be a Barnabus Collins feature called House of Dark Shadows, a feature-film version of the gothic daytime soap, Dark Shadows. Never watched the series neither it's full length movies, no comment.

[Ardath Bey]

October 26 is going to be a night devoted to legendary RKO screenwriter and producer, Val Lewton. Three of the six films featured this particular evening are Lewton productions. Those being I walked with a Zombie; Cat People; and Curse of the Cat People.

Also an additional duo of Lewton's films will be telecast on separate evenings; The Seventh Victim on October 19 and The Body Snatcher on October 28.

Already shown were his costume period thriller Bedlam and the naval suspense thriller The Ghost Ship. Both televised early wednesday morning 10/8.

That's seven of his nine horror films shown. Isle of the Dead and The Leopard Man unfortunately will not be included in TCM's holiday programming. --"Val Lewton was an influential innovator, invoking the power of suggestion and psychological terror, creating some of the most suspenseful moments in classic horror"--

October 28 will be dedicated to Boris Karloff, but ironically it is Bela Lugosi that steals the limelight in two of these three featured films. Lugosi plays a lunatic obsessive surgeon named Dr. Vollin opposite Karloff's shady criminal persona Bateman in The Raven. This film is nearly a role reversal of the pair's very first collaboration together a year earlier, The Black Cat. Though inferior to the next two movies scheduled for this celebrated evening The Raven remains a typical Universal classic.

And in The Black Cat, Lugosi portrays a tortured man Dr. Vitus Werdegast confronting his former hungarian military commander cum satan worshipping high priest and eccentric architect Herr Poelzig (Karloff). The film's single drawback is Universal's insistance on casting the wooden David Manners yet again as a plain reluctant hero-type (i.e. Dracula and The Mummy). But there is sadism, necromancy, and even necrophilia subversively implied in the film. Something Studio executives must have overlooked. Great 'guignol' ending too, including a black mass. With it's fanciful modernist/bauhaus styled architecture, The Black Cat is one of the best and weirdest productions of 30s Universal horror classics this side of Whale's 1932 The Old Dark House; Browning's 1932 Freaks; and Freund's 1935 Mad Love. (BTW, director Edgar G Ulmer served as an art director for Max Reinhart and F.W. Murnau.)

Not since Dracula has any role seen Bela Lugosi remarkably at the top of his form as in these two films. There is a campiness that pervades in both films, lightly based upon Poe tales, yet both prevail triumphantly with genuine compelling atmosphere.

And the final movie is a Val Lewton production called The Body Snatcher, also features Lugosi but in a very small and indistinct role. Inspired by a Robert Louis Stevenson's story of a grave robber who supplies corpses to research scientists. One of actor Karloff's best efforts ever as Cabman John Gray the grave robber.

[ADarksideJedi]

:angel My twin sister is into horror movie I don't watch them at all i get scared easy!Yes you can say that I am a scary cat if you guys want too!:lol
Anyway thanks for the list I can show it to maxi so she can see what she wants to watch!Happy halloween everyone!JM:angel