The adventures of a professional screenwriter and sometimes film festival jurist, slogging through the trenches of Hollywood, writing movies that you have never heard of, and getting no respect. Voted #10 - Best Blogs For Screenwriters - Bachelor's Degree
Each year the Library Of Congress Film Preservation Board selects 25 films to be deemed National Treasures and included in the National Film Registry. Here are this year's entries...
BEING THERE (1979)
BLACK AND TAN (1929)
DRACULA (SPANISH LANGUAGE VERSION) (1931)
DREAM OF A RAREBIT FIEND (1906)
EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE, ZOOPRAXOGRAPHER (1974)
EDISON KINETOSCOPIC RECORD OF A SNEEZE (1894)
A FOOL THERE WAS (1915)
GHOSTBUSTERS (1984)
HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO (1944)
HUMORESQUE (1920)
IMITATION OF LIFE (1959)
THE INNER WORLD OF APHASIA (1968)
JOHN HENRY AND THE INKY-POO (1946)
L.A. CONFIDENTIAL (1997)
THE MARK OF ZORRO (1920)
THE OLD MILL (1937)
OUR DAILY BREAD (1934)
PORTRAIT OF JASON (1967)
SECONDS (1966)
THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (1994)
SINK OR SWIM (1990)
THE STORY OF MENSTRUATION (1946)
SYMBIOPSYCHOTAXIPLASM: TAKE ONE (1968)
TOP GUN (1986)
WINCHESTER '73 (1950)
I could not find a BluRay for THE STORY OF MENSTRUATION, but maybe now Critereon will start to work on one. SECONDS is one of my favorite films, and if you haven't seen it you should check it out. I am also a huge fan of the Spanish version of DRACULA, made at the same time and on the same sets as the Lugosi version. They would shoot the English language version by day and the Spanish language version as soon as they finished the day on the English version. The Spanish version is more sexual, with Dracula as a romantic figure that no woman can say no to. Also, the women in this version show a lot more cleavage. I figure you have all seen TOP GUN and SHAWSHANK, so I focused on the others. Oh, and if you don't know who Eadweard Muybridge was - he invented movies with his experiment to see if race horses ever had all four feet off the ground at the same time (to win a bet with Leland Stanford). Muybridge began his experiment... then had to put it off for a few years when he went to prison for murder! When he was released, he finished - using a string of still cameras to photograph a series of stills of horses racing which lead to the idea of moving pictures (and persistence of vision). A fascinating character.
Lancelot Link Monday! Is an episode of a TV series fair game to swipe the plot of and use it for your movie?
While you're thinking about that, here are this week's links to some great screenwriting and film articles, plus some fun stuff that may be of interest to you. Brought to you by that suave and sophisticated secret agent...
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
1) Weekend Box Office Estimates: 1 Force Awakens.................. $153,522,000 2 Daddy's Home.................... $38,800,000 3 Joy (no almonds)................ $17,500,000 4 Sisters (no DePalma)............ $13,880,000 5 Road Chip (no Ernie)............ $12,700,000 6 Concussion...................... $11,000,000 7 Big Shorts...................... $10,520,000 8 Point Break..................... $10,220,000 9 Hunger 3,2........................ $5,300,000 10 Creed............................. $4,600,000
HATEFUL EIGHT opened out of the Top Ten, but it's still the movie everyone is talking about this weekend - because it's either that or DADDY'S HOME!
This year *has* broken Box Office records, as predicted.
Lancelot Link Monday! All of my friends were excited about the new movie opening over the weekend, and those who saw it said they laughed and cried and it was so great they forgave the previous three crappy movies... so I went to see ALVIN & THE CHIPMUNKS: THE ROAD CHIP! Kind of disappointed. You stand in line for hours, you'd think it would be worth the wait, right?
While you're thinking about that, here are this week's links to some great screenwriting and film articles, plus some fun stuff that may be of interest to you. Brought to you by that suave and sophisticated secret agent...
Here are a baker's dozen links plus this week's car chase...
STAR WARS record breaking $238m opening weekend... and when you include foreign it's hit $517m so far. First weekend. People online are saying they are going to see it a couple more times... which means it will continue to make a ton of money. Also - because so many showings have been sold out, and there are lines and crowds, many people are waiting until later to see the film. This was already a great box office year *before* STAR WARS. I suspect this will end up the new record ticket sales year in the USA.
For me, part of writing is figuring out what my damned subconscious is up to. I am a planner by nature. Part of my outline process is trying to find the parts that go together and why they go together so that I can make sure to highlight that in the screenplay. Our minds are mysterious places. They connect things that may not seem to be connected on the surface. When I'm thinking about my story before writing it, all kinds of strange elements may pop into my noggin that don't seem to be part of the story... but my subconscious is way ahead of me. Often in outline stage, I discover the connections... sometimes I can't see the connections and either leave the weird stuff out or leave it in for the first draft hoping that I will figure out where the heck that idea came from as I am writing, and make it work in the next draft.
That's kind of what happened on the spec I'm working on now. There were 3 subplots, and though all were connected to the story on the surface, I had no idea how they were connected to the story on a deeper level. One subplot had to do with the character's problems in school. One subplot had to do with the character's father's problems at work. One of the subplots had to do with a specific type of sidekick and that sidekick's background – also specific. Now, there was some reason why my subconscious selected that sidekick with that background... but I didn't know why when I began writing the screenplay. I've read many screenplays where it seemed like characters and incidents were picked blindly from a hat and just jammed into the script arbitrarily. That's what I try to avoid at the thinking-about-it stage and the outline stage – I try to find the connections. But on this script? Not a clue.
But why did my brain pick these specific elements? There is always some reason, and the trick to a good screenplay is to know the reason so that it can be communicated to the audience in the film and not just some weird thing that only makes sense to you. Screenwriting is communication – and if for some reason you just know that the character is left handed, part of the job is to figure out why they are left handed and why that is critical to the story and make sure the audience understands these things so it's not just some whim that the character is left handed.
So, a few days ago I was writing a scene... and had this flash. Suddenly, I could see what my subconscious was getting at! I knew the why for these subplots. I knew why there was only one choice for type of sidekick and background of sidekick – no other version would have worked as well. No other version would have illustrated the theme. No other version would have shown the protagonist's emotional issues as well. And that sidekick was connected to the two other subplots in ways I'd never seen before. Connections that were always there, that my subconscious could see, but I had not been able to see before. This allowed me to write a scene that was about one of the subplots but also addressed the two other subplots on the sly... so that all three subplots could make sense as part of the story to the audience. Now, those subplots made sense to me so I could write a scene so that they'd make sense to the audience. My subconscious knew these were the best subplots for this script before I did.
The trick is to listen to your subconscious, but also to find the way through that wall between right brain and left brain so that you understand what the heck your subconscious is up to and get that stuff on the page in a way that the reader and viewer can understand as well.
- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Protagonist's Job - How your protag's job is part of the story and important to the story... using the new movie WIN WIN as an example. Dinner: Subway sandwich. Pages: Dang - fell off the horse! But I did get a couple of pages written. Bicycle: Mostly short rides. Movies: WIN WIN - great little movie by the writer-director of THE VISITOR and THE STATION AGENT.
Lancelot Link Monday! I can't figure out why people are surprised that Ron Howard's new film is bombing. If you had pitched me that script, I would have passed on it... How many people want to see a remake of MOBY DICK, based on a famous novel? Okay, now divide that by 100 because this isn't based on the famous novel, it's based on the true story that inspired the novel. Snooze! What *dream* of the audience does this film fulfill? And it's not even "cultural" like some movie based on MOBY DICK (which allows you to sound as if you maybe read the book, when you just skimmed the Cliff Notes in High School). How did *anyone* think this would make money? Oh, and the title SUCKS!
While you're thinking about that, here are this week's links to some great screenwriting and film articles, plus some fun stuff that may be of interest to you. Brought to you by that suave and sophisticated secret agent...
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
1) Weekend Box Office Estimates: 1 Hunger Games 3 Part 2............ $11,300,000 2 Fart Of Sea...................... $11,005,000 3 Good Dino........................ $10,497,000 4 Creed............................ $10,120,000 5 Krampus........................... $8,010,000 6 Spectre........................... $4,000,000 7 Night B4.......................... $3,900,000 8 Peanuts........................... $2,650,000 9 Spotlight......................... $2,508,853 10 Brooklyn.......................... $1,975,000
Lancelot Link Monday! Some of this week's links are to Best Films Of 2015 Lists... and this year isn't even over! This is worse than Christmas decorations and music before Thanksgiving! Hey, most of the big Oscar movies will be released just before Christmas, so how can you know what the best movie of the year is when a whole bunch of really good ones haven't even been released yet? Did they use a crystal ball? Did they call one of those TV psychics? What if some movie that hasn't been released yet is better?
While you're thinking about that, here are this week's links to some great screenwriting and film articles, plus some fun stuff that may be of interest to you. Brought to you by that suave and sophisticated secret agent...
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
Lancelot Link Monday! This week's links not only have the first photo from the WONDER WOMAN movie, also a swell article on the Women In Hollywood... oh, amnd the #1 film this weekend stars one of those women we speak of. Yes, there should be more of them working in the business, so let's do something about that!
While you're thinking about that, here are this week's links to some great screenwriting and film articles, plus some fun stuff that may be of interest to you. Brought to you by that suave and sophisticated secret agent...
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
Though part 2 of MOCKINGJAY opened $20m below part 1's opening, but foreign brings it up to $247 million... and it's days before Thanksgiving and 2 weeks after SPECTRE... with STAR WARS around the corner. Some of the estimates were $100m, and it made $101m, so it's not a failure. Heck, it made a pile of money in the first 3 days! Total box office for the year is still 4% over last year... with STAR WARS on the horizon.
Lancelot Link Tuesday! A day late and a dollar short... so if all of you could send me a dollar, I'd appreciate it. Sorry this is a day late - but weather in Los Angeles on Sunday (and Monday) was cold and windy, so I decided to skip work and stay home near the heating vent and drink cocoa and watch TV and relax. I actually wrote a couple of pages on my short story, but not enough to matter. Some times you just need to take a day off. By the way - what does a cat do on it's day off? The opposite of what it does every other day?
While you're thinking about that, here are this week's links to some great screenwriting and film articles, plus some fun stuff that may be of interest to you. Brought to you by that suave and sophisticated secret agent...
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
1) Weekend Box Office Actuals: 1 Spectre......................... $33,681,104 2 Peanuts......................... $24,013,538 3 Love The Coopers................. $8,317,545 4 Martian.......................... $6,712,171 5 The 33........................... $5,787,266 6 Goosebumps....................... $4,633,112 7 Bridge Of Spies.................. $4,268,772 8 Prem Ratan Dhan Payo............. $2,425,585 9 Hotel Transylvania............... $2,314,063 10 Last Vin Diesel Movie............ $1,482,463
Box Office is 4.4% ahead of this time last year... and STAR WARS hasn't opened, yet. Oh, and the last HUNGER GAMES movie comes out this weekend. Looking to be a good year.
Another thing that happened while I was doing the 13 Films Of Halloween was the Raindance Film Fest gave out their awards.
** denotes the winner in the category.
Best International Feature:
Fires On The Plain
**Alice In Marialand
Chorus
Happy 140
That’s It
Echoes of War
Best British Feature:
**Kicking Off
Love/Me/Do
Mile End
The Return
Swansong
God’s Acre
Best Debut Feature:
Le Dep
**Princess
Bob And The Trees
Racket Shelter
Out of My Hand
Best Documentary Feature:
Sila And The Gatekeepers Of The Arctic
Digital Dissidents
**Gored
The Arms Drop
Horizontes
Broken Land
Best International Short
**Home
Winter Light
Chute Fighter
Shabu Shabu Spirit
Harry & Judy
A Hole In My Heart
Best UK Short
Into The Surf
Dating Eliza
**North
The Earth Belongs To No-One
Just Desserts
Strange Weather
Best Animated Short
N0-A
**Palm Rot
The Mechanical Waltz
The Alchemist’s Letter
Nowhere Line – Notes from Manus island
Last Day Of Freedom
Best Documentary Short
I Thought I Told You To Shut Up
Transmitting Thought: The Maimonides Dream Lab
The Champion
Rattle The Hocks
Rock’n’Roll Island
**Walking Through Havana
Feature Film of the Festival All features in the festival are eligible. It is awarded to the film that best embodies the spirit of Raindance.
**Datuna: Portrait of America
Short Film of the Festival* All shorts in the festival are eligible. The winner of the Short Film of the Festival award will be eligible for Oscar consideration.
** Winter Light
Special Jury Prize for a Short** All shorts in the festival are eligible. The winner of the Special Jury Prize for a Short will be invited to pitch for next year’s festival trailer.
**The House Job
Best Music Video All music videos in the festival are eligible.
**Stealing Sheep – Not Real
The new BREAKING IN Blue Book has not even gotten close to beating THE CAT on Amazon! How can that be? The previous Blue Books had all battled SAVE THE CAT for the #1 position on Amazon by this point and won... for a day or two. THE CAT always returns to the top spot!
So how about helping me BEAT THE CAT?
If you want the new Blue Book and haven't bought it yet - BUY IT FRIDAY (11/6/15). If enough people buy it on the same day, it can battle the CAT for #1!
But *why* should you buy the BREAKING IN Blue Book? It's 419 pages long! That's like *2* books worth of material! Did I charge extra? Nope - still only $3.99. (But look for all of the Blue Book prices to go up a buck sometime next year... there are $5 screenwriting "books" on Amazon that are under 50 pages...) The problem was, the old paper version of the Blue Book was (and is) only around 40 pages of material, so it could only focus on the very basics of getting your script out there... nothing about making connections and networking, nothing about assignments, nothing about meetings, nothing about options, nothing about contracts, nothing about side doors into the business, nothing about *most* of the aspects of the business. Once I typed the words:
"Though this book is titled “Breaking In” that is kind of a misnomer, because it should be called the Everything About The Business Blue Book. There will be much more involved in your screenwriting career than selling screenplays, so I covered as much as I can. It's really the BREAKING IN AND HAVING A CAREER AND STAYING IN Blue Book.
I knew I was in trouble, because now I'd have to address all of those things! I'd have to go beyond query letters and look at all of the things that happen once your career begins, and you need to know all about meetings and assignments. Things you need to know in order to make connections that get you into the business. All of the back doors and side entrances into the business... what about contests? Pitchfests? Hey, what can you expect when you do a round of meetings and where will they make you park? How do you find a manager? Do you need a lawyer? There are so many aspects of the screenwriting business that I know even at 400 pages I have left things out... but eventually you have to type Fade Out and release it into the world. So here it is...
Should really be called the BUSINESS BLUE BOOK because it covers almost everything you will need to
know for your screenwriting career: from thinking like a producer and learning to speak their language,
to query letters and finding a manager or agent, to making connections (at home and in Hollywood) and
networking, to the different kinds of meetings you are will have at Studios, to the difference between
a producer and a studio, to landing an assignment at that meeting and what is required of you when you
are working under contract, to contracts and options and lawyers and... when to run from a deal!
Information you can use *now* to move your career forward! It's all here in the Biggest Blue Book yet!
Print version was 48 pages, Kindle version is over 400 pages!
Other countries check your Amazon websites... it's there!
Seriously - TEN TIMES larger than the paper version (still on sale on my website)! That's just crazy!
The next 3 Blue Books will be DESCRIPTION, STRUCTURE, and BLOCKBUSTERs (all 3 in 2016 I hope). Everyone wants the OUTLINES Blue Book, and I've promised it for the past couple of years, but the problem is I don't have enough ideas for new chapters, yet... and I want to get it up to 200 pages. I hope that over the next year I'll come up with some new chapter ideas and get that out at the beginning of 2017.
Lancelot Link Monday! Halloween candy is 50% off and every store has their Christmas stuff up. Couldn't we create homne decorations that switched from scary Halloween to fun Christmas with the flick of a switch?
While you're thinking about that, here are this week's links to some great screenwriting and film articles, plus some fun stuff that may be of interest to you. Brought to you by that suave and sophisticated secret agent...
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
1) Weekend Box Office Estimates: 1 The Martian..................... $11,400,000 2 Goosebumps...................... $10,210,000 3 Bridge Of Spies.................. $8,060,000 4 Hotel Tranny 2................... $5,830,000 5 Burnt............................ $5,038,000 6 Last Vin Diesel.................. $4,750,000 7 Pair Of Normal................... $3,450,000 8 Our Brand........................ $3,430,000 9 Crimson (not Twin)............... $3,110,000 10 Jobs............................. $2,580,000
Some folks have been making a lot out of BURNT and OUR BRAND IS CRISIS - two star driven vehicles - not making piles of money this weekend. Those people are morons. Both films are not commercial vehicles, but "Oscar bait" movies - and I don't think anyone expected them to make a lot of money. They expected them to get good reviews and be remembered when the Oscar nominations are announced. Halloween is traditionally a dead weekend - people are Trick Or Treating and going to parties - not the movies. So it's the perfect time to release a film that is not expected to sell a lot of tickets. Hey, both ended up in the top ten...
Starring: Vincent Price, Elizabeth Shepherd, John Westbrook.
Written by: Robert Towne (CHINATOWN).
Directed by: Roger Corman
Produced by: Roger Corman
Still in England, but this time with some amazing exterior locations including Castle Acre Priory and *Stonehenge*! Though this film is also a little aloof and cerebral, it delivers many more old fashioned scares than RED DEATH, and makes my list of great mock-Hitchcock films. That’s probably what makes this film most interesting to me - that Corman and Towne seem to have put VERTIGO and REBECCA in a blender and come up with this Poe inspired story. 1964 was the year that Hitchcock released MARNIE, and this cheapo Corman film is a much better “Hitchcock film” than the Tippi-hair-fest.
In a strange twist on REBECCA we have a second Mrs. Fell dealing with a husband who is still obsessed with his first wife and keeping some deep and dark secrets about her death. As she tries to deal with her husband’s peculiarities, a seemingly haunted house, a dangerous black cat and solve the VERTIGO like mystery of Ligeia and her death (?) (which has echoes of the Mad Carlotta); the second Mrs. Fell moves from Wuthering Heights style costume drama to Edgar Allan Poe terror. Hey, there’s even a fox hunt like in MARNIE! And hints of a make over like in VERTIGO. And Ligeia ends up having something in common with Mrs. Bates. This really has the feel of a Hitchcock film.
Speaking of Wuthering Heights, once again these films give Vincent Price a chance to play a different and interesting character. From the sadistic Prince Prospero in RED DEATH to this, almost exact opposite character, as kind of a hunky brooding Heathcliff type whose spell our leading lady falls under... but does he have ulterior motives?
1821: Ruins. A funeral procession carries a coffin to a waiting grave... with a Priest chasing after them, “You can’t bury her in consecrated ground. She was not Christian!” Her husband Verden Fell (Vincent Price) insists. They have a little religious debate about whether the ground cares where she is buried, then a black cat yelps and jumps on to the coffin... and Ligeia’s eyes pop open! Fell opens the coffin and touches her - still dead. A nervous contraction. He closes her eyes and the coffin lid.
A fox hunt. A dozen men in red coats and black top hats ride horses chasing the hounds which are chasing the fox. Christopher (John Westbrook) and Rowena (Elizabeth Shepherd) leave the group - she’s found something far more intriguing... the Ruins. Rowena rides up to Ligeia’s grave... the ground in front of the headstone carpeted with fresh red flowers ... and that black cat snarls at her, causing the horse to rear up and buck her off. When she gets to her feet, a dark figure stands next to the massive headstone - Fell in Dark glasses. She screams and passes out. Christopher hears the scream and catches up... ends up introducing Rowena to Fell. Sparks of attraction - this is a “meet cute” in a graveyard. Fell *carries her* back to his house to take care of her injuries, while Christopher watches.
In his rambling old estate, Fell lays her down on a sofa and sees to her ankle... something sexual about removing her boot and stockings to apply the bandage to her sprained ankle. But Fell is cold, distant when she flirts with him. Christopher arrives with Rowena’s father Lord Trevanion (Derek Francis) who would rather show her the dead fox from the hunt than inquire as to her injury. Trevanion shows Fell the fox and asks if he’d ever seen one with these markings... and ends up getting a mini-lecture on the specific species of fox. It’s an Egyptian fox... and was the pet of his dead wife Ligeia. Trevanion is a moron. When they prepare to leave, the fox’s body is gone. How is this possible? The fox was dead. “The cat was not. It appears that the cat has made off with the fox.” They say their goodbyes, and Rowena’s flirtation is met with coldness again. But Rowena is hooked.
Days later a letter for Fell ends up at Christopher’s by mistake, and Rowena decides to deliver it. In the darkness of the house (Fell’s eyes are light sensitive) he mistakes Rowena for his dead wife and grabs her. Realizes his mistake and yells at her never to come to his house unannounced... insists on making her a cup of tea as an apology. “Does she look like me?” “Who?” And we’re in VERTIGO territory... Rowena continues flirting and he thaws for a moment. He is a permanently heartbroken man - after his wife died, he has been alone. His wife was so full of life that without her...
Rowena takes his face and brings him in for a kiss... when the black cat attacks her, leaving a scratch on her cheek.
That’s when Christopher shows up at the door. Fell leaves Rowena’s wounds to his butler Kenrick (Oliver Johnston) and goes to see Christopher... and asks him for some romantic advice. They take a walk through the grounds, ending at Ligeia’s grave. Someone has removed the date of her death from the headstone. Vandals? Christopher asks where is the date of her birth? “I never knew her age.” Fell believes this vandalism is prophetic of Ligeia’s *return*.
Meanwhile, Rowena asks butler Kenrick what Ligeia was like.
Rowena returns to the great room, sees that black cat guarding her hat and Fell’s dark glasses. She grabs her hat without incident, but the cat takes off with the glasses. She gives chase into an old spider-webbed passageway - dark and spooky and unused. Up a dark and dusty staircase... to the bell tower... more shades of VERTIGO! Where the black cat skitters across a very narrow ledge to the other side of a massive clock’s bell. Rowena carefully moves across the narrow ledge, carefully bends down to snatch the glasses from the cat’s mouth. But the cat bolts, and she almost falls.
At Ligeia’s tombstone, Fell wonders who would posses the skill to remove the date from the headstone... aside from himself. Then he sees the marble dust on one of his hands... did he remove the date himself? Without knowing? Has he gone crazy? Then the clock bell begins ringing - but it is not an even hour. What’s going on? Fell and Christopher run to find out.
In the bell tower, Rowena is trapped on that narrow ledge as the bell echoes around her. Plug her ears or hold on for dear life? She chooses to hold on. Fell carefully walks across that narrow ledge, rescues Rowena.
At 35:00, Bells continue to ring: Fell and Rowena’s wedding. Christopher watches the carriage take them away.
Rowena and Fell walk along the rugged coastline, and we’re in some version of REBECCA while they tell stories of their past Fell decides to sell the estate, and start his life again with Rowena... but until the estate can be sold, that will be their home.
After their honeymoon they return to the rambling old estate, where Kenrick has hired a cadre of servants who greet Rowena exactly as the servants greeted the new Mrs. DeWinter in REBECCA. Hey, new wife in the house haunted by the dead first wife? Rowena goes to bed that night and sees a strange reflection in the mirror - Ligeia? Her hairbrush has *black hairs* in it, like Ligeia’s. She runs into Fell’s bedroom - which is empty. In the middle of the night?
Welcome Home Dinner with Lord Trevanion and Christopher and some other guests. Christopher tells Fell there is a problem with the sale of the estate - the deed is in Ligeia’s name, and there doesn’t seem to be a death certificate for Ligeia (which would pass the estate to her husband). Fell says there never was a death certificate, so what now? Christopher says there will have to be an inquest into her death, so that a certificate can be issued. Perhaps the body will even have to be exhumed. Fell says that no one will go near Ligeia’s grave. Christopher explains that *legally* Ligeia is still alive, still Fell’s wife. The dinner conversation turns to hypnotism and regression therapy - uncovering blocked or forgotten memories... Fell says he knows how to administer hypnosis.
After dinner, Rowena grabs Christopher and whispers that Fell seems to vanish at night... strange. Then Fell calls Rowena to be his hypnotism subject. She remembers nothing about her mother, who dies when she was 3 years old. He hypnotizes her... and she remembers her mother singing to her as a baby... and then is *possessed* by Ligeia - speaking in a strange deep voice, repeating passages from Ligeia’s diary which she has never read (but a passage that Fell read to the Priest in the opening scene). “I will always be your wife!” Then Rowena passes out... and wakes up as herself. She is taken to bed. She wants to ask Fell some questions, but he kisses her goodnight and leaves.
Rowena has strange nightmares... the dead fox comes alive and attacks her. The black cat chases her. She runs through the dark and twisted hallways of the estate. Falls into a carpet of red flowers - the same flowers on Ligeia’s grave (the same flowers that Mad Carlotta wore in her hair in VERTIGO?) This is *not* AMERICAN BEAUTY! She leaves the bed of flowers and runs into Fell’s arms and embraces him... and he turns into death - clutching her.
She wakes up - starring into the face of that dead fox! Brought to her bed by the black cat as if it were a mouse. She screams, goes to Fell’s bedroom... which is once again empty. The balcony doors blowing in the wind. She walks slowly to the balcony doors, reaches for them... when they blast open exposing a dark figure! Fell. Oddly, with a tray of food in his hands. Rowena asks where he’s been, why he has the tray of food. What tray of food? Fell is surprised to see it in his hands - he was sleep walking. What?
He asks Kenrick about the tray of food - and gets no answer. But has the butler remove the dead fox from Rowena’s room. Rowena offers to spend the night with Fell, but he brushes her off. I know they went on a honeymoon, but have they not slept together since returning to this house haunted by Ligeia? What’s up with that?
Rowena takes Kenrick back to her room - but the dead fox is gone. Was it part of her nightmare?
Later, Rowena has tea with Christopher and tells him of her frustrations... and asks how she can he Fell’s wife if he is *technically* still married to the not legally dead Ligeia? Rowena believes that Ligeia is still alive, and that Fell goes to her every night. Taking her food, sleeping with her, still married to the woman who is not legally dead. Christopher says he will investigate this...
The black cat watches their discussion.
At the dinner table, Rowena is alone. She grabs a candle and drips wax on her food, then holds her hand over the flame. Kenrick asks if there’s something else he can get her - she answers “My husband.” That’s when Christopher drops in, asks Kenrick where Fell is... and demands and answer. Gives Kenrick the third degree as if they are in a courtroom (Christopher *is* a lawyer) - where is Fell? Where is Ligeia? Kenrick can answer neither question... which is odd, because isn’t Ligeia buried at the base of that headstone? Kenrick begs to leave and bolts out of the room. Christopher tells Rowena to go into her room and bolt the door and do not open it for anyone, especially her husband.
Christopher runs out to Ligeia’s grave, where a pair of laborers are digging up the coffin. He takes off his coat, rolls up his sleeves, grabs a shovel and helps them.
Rowena locks herself in her room... then hears the cat snarling from the other side of the door - banging on the door - hard! Then the banging stops... but the cat is inside the room. It attacks her. She races to the door, unbolts it, runs into the hallway - the black cat chasing her. Locks herself in Fell’s bedroom... but the cat is somehow inside and attacks her again! She races out to the balcony, trying to escape the cat... and spots what looks like a little door behind a plant. Opens it... a secrets passageway. She enters.
Christopher and the two laborers get down to the coffin... a storm on the horizon, thunder and lightning.
Rowena is in a maze of secret passages between rooms. Dusty, covered with spider webs, dark and creepy. The cat chases her. She comes to a doorway, throws it open and dives inside. A strange room filled with Egyptian artifacts. The black cat appears inside the room with her. She spins - and there is someone staring right at her! She screams... then realizes it is a mirror. But her scream has shattered the glass... and beyond the broken mirror she sees a narrow stairway going up. Where?
She breaks away the rest of the mirror and climbs the narrow stairs. Blood drips from her hand from handling the broken mirror. A deep gash.
Christopher brushes away the dirt from the small glass window in the coffin - and sees Ligeia’s face within. He grabs the lantern to take a closer look and drops it onto the window... breaking it... and setting the face within on fire! “Wax!” There isn’t a corpse within, but a wax sculpture. Ligeia is *not* in her coffin, a dummy is! But then, where is Ligeia?
When he looks up from the grave, Kenrick the butler stands over him, shovel in hand. To hit him? He helps Christopher out of the grave. “You must hurry, sir, it’s out of my hands now.”
At the top of the narrow stairs Rowena finds a dark room filled with bizarre sculptures. As she looks through the room a man enters through another secret passage - Fell. Rowena sees him, calls his name... he does not answer. He seems... hypnotized.
Rowena sees a draped area in the back of the room, moves towards it and throws open the black curtains. Exposing Ligeia (also Elizabeth Shepherd) in a black bed. Rowena screams, trips, and falls *onto* Ligeia. Gets tangled in her arms. Tangled in her body. But Ligeia does not move. She seems stiff. DEAD. *Preserved*. Ewww! Rowena untangles herself from the corpse and runs out of the curtained area... right at Fell. He stands there - like a zombie.
A voice from behind her, she spins - Christopher and Kenrick in the doorway. “He’s beyond any of us now. Beyond any shock. Come with us. He’ll come alone, when he can.” It seems that just before Ligeia died, she hypnotized Fell into believing that she would not die, so he should spend the nights with her up here in this room (um, necrophilia), and the days downstairs in his “normal life”. Kenrick says, “He is still held by her word. Only she can release him. And she is dead.”
Rowena has a plan: she attempts to hypnotize Fell the way he hypnotized her - hypnotize him to see her as Ligeia. “Look at me. I am Ligeia. Look at me now. And listen. And remember. Remember everything. Remember all I’ve ever asked of you - and when you do remember you will be free.” Then Rowena slides down to the floor, leaving a huge bloody swath across Fell’s white shirt. “It is too late.” She is dead.
Fell grabs Ligeia’s corpse from the black bed and tosses it into the fireplace (it’s a big one) and the corpse burns in the funeral pyre. Then he takes Rowena’s corpse and puts it on the bed where Dead Ligeia had lain, closes the black curtains and walks away. When he hears a noise - that damned black cat trying to suck the last breath from Rowena. He tosses the cat away. But, did Rowena move? He bends down to her body, looking for signs of life... finds none. Kisses her one last time and leaves her body on the bed, once more closing those black curtains. He walks across the room to the door...
When he hears the curtains open.
He turns, and there is Rowena walking from the bed chamber! Her hair black like Ligeia’s! Fell grabs Ligeia by the throat and strangles her until there is no life left... dropping her to the floor. Christopher runs back into the room, sees Fell standing over the woman’s corpse. Fell says that Ligeia killed Rowena, so he killed Ligeia. Only, it’s Rowena’s corpse at his feet!
Christopher takes Rowena’s body out of the room, down the stairs.
Fell grabs a whip and attacks the black cat - which fights back. Is the cat Ligeia? The cat launches at Fell’s face, tearing out his eyes! Fell staggers around, accidentally sending the curtain into the fireplace and turning the entire estate into a blazing inferno! As the building burns and collapses, Fell finds the black cat and strangles it... both die in the fire.
In Christopher’s carriage. Rowena’s eyes open. She is alive! That loser dude gets the girl after all!
Tomorrow we leave the land of Edgar Allan Poe but stick with Vincent Price for a film that may be a predecessor of SEVEN!
Vincent Price died on this day (October 25th) in 1993 at the age of 82.
He was born in St. Louis, Missouri on May 27, 1911, into a fairly well-to-do family. His grandfather had invented “Dr. Price’s Baking Powder, used in kitchens across America and his father was the president of the National Candy Company (Jellybeans! Their factory in St. Louis is now a National Historic Landmark building). He graduated from Yale with a degree in Art History, and continued his education at the University Of London aiming for a Masters Degree in Fine Arts... but got mixed up with the wrong crowd (Orson Welles) and ended up acting on stage with the Mercury Theatre in London in 1935. By 1936 he was back in America playing the male lead on stage opposite Helen Hayes in a production of Victoria Regina. As an actual actor, who played a variety of very different roles, when Hollywood called they made him a character actor. His first film was SERVICE DE LUX (1938) but he became “famous” when he played the “kept man” in one of my favorite movies LAURA (1944).
Like all actors under studio contracts, Price had been working in dozens of films up until then, including his first horror film TOWER OF LONDON (1939) with Boris Karloff - who he’d work with in these AIP horror ficks that we’ve been looking at. In 1940 he filled in for Claude Raines in THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS and played that role again in one of my favorite horror films ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN.
Being a character actor in studio B movies meant Price also ended up in a bunch of other Film Noirs besides LAURA - he’s in THE WEB and THE LONG NIGHT and THE BRIBE and several others. His mid-Atlantic accent and ability to play all types of characters made him a great villain or suspect in these films.
In 1956 he co-starred in the epic blockbuster THE TEN COMMANDMENTS with Chuckles Heston, who would later play the same role as Price had played in LAST MAN ON EARTH in the schlocky mega-macho version OMEGA MAN.
He returned to horror films in the 3D HOUSE OF WAX (1953) and continued with films like THE FLY (1958) and RETURN OF THE FLY (1959) and THE TINGLER (1959).
Which brings us up to the films that we’ve been looking at in this series - THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1959) and the Roger Corman Poe films.
After doing dozens of TV guest starring roles (including villain Egghead on BATMAN) and becoming a regular on THE HOLLYWOOD SQUARES, Price “retired” in the mid-1970s and returned to the stage, plus his love of art and cooking. He hosted a cooking show! The strangest piece of his biography is that he became an Art Consultant to Sears Department Stores which actually sold fine art and reproductions to suburbanites who wanted to seem sophisticated through a kind of “art of the month club”. Price personally selected the art works and thought of this as bringing an appreciation of fine art to a mass audience. Price also donated hundreds of pieces of art from his collection to the East Los Angeles College and established a museum there. He died of lung cancer at UCLA Medical Center on this day in 1993.
I was trying to figure out the best film to highlight Vincent Price’s career today... and decided on an early animated film by Tim Burton you may not have ever seen, called...
Starring: Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, Basil Rathbone.
Written by: Richard Matheson
Directed by: Jaques Tournier
Produced by: James H. Nicholson (American International Pictures)
This was one of my favorites as a kid, not based on a Poe story but an original screenplay by Richard Matheson. It was not a big hit like the previous Price AIP movies, and the blame always seems to land on having the word “comedy” in the title... but unlike THE RAVEN, here the comedy really works because the whole story is played straight. The characters are all “serious” and it’s their reactions to the ghoulish situations which are funny. The line from this film I use in real life every once in a while is “What place is this?” After seeing the film, you may, too!
Spooky graveyard opening scene... a funeral in the fog. Undertaker Trumbull (Vincent Price) and his assistant Gillie (Peter Lorre) wait until the funeral ends and the friends and family of the dearly departed have left before lifting the coffin over the hole... and dumping the body from the coffin into the hole! They clean out the coffin, fill in the hole, take the coffin back to their horse drawn hearse, and take off into the fog!
Rhubarb The Cat scurries down a Victorian street, through a doorway, and down to the basement of the funeral parlor where Mr. Gillie works building a crappy coffin, trying to ignore the marital spat from upstairs...
Trumbull and his wife (Joyce Jameson) are arguing at the dinner table, her deaf father Hinchley (Boris Karloff) continues eating. She accuses Trumbull of being a drunk, he says she’s a shrew, she says he only married her for her father’s funeral business, he says who else would have her? Domestic bliss. Old Hinchley keeps mis-hearing what is said and responding inappropriately. Trumbull suggests he give Old Hinchley some “medicine” and shows his wife a bottle of poison he keeps in his pocket. He pours it into Old Hinchley’s milk, and Mrs. Trumbull snatches the milk away before Hinchley can drink it - Old Hinchley complains that she keeps taking away his medicine before he can drink it... she doesn’t care whether he lives or dies. The poison in the milk becomes a running gag throughout the story. The Trumbull & Hinchley Funeral Parlor is having serious financial problems - only one customer in the past 9 months. And Old Hinchley (Mrs. Trumbull’s father) spent his fortune on junk Nic-knacks filling up shelves throughout the house. Trumbull hurls a final insult at his wife and leaves.
On the street outside he bumps into Mr. Black (Basil Rathbone) his landlord who reminds him that his rent is late again, and threatens eviction if he is not paid within 24 hours. Trumbull will have to take up residency in the streets... unless he can drum up some business.
When Trumbull returns to the house, he has a meeting with Gillie about drumming up some business. At midnight they take the hearse out to a mansion on Winkle Road where they break in, and in trying to be quiet manage to make all kinds of noise, at one point causing a domino run of famous people’s plaster busts crash into each other on the way to the floor. While opening upstairs doors trying to find their victim, Trumbull stumbles on his sleeping wife (stripper Beverly Hills) - a real hottie. He finds Phipps’ bedroom and smothers him with a pillow. A new customer! The next morning, they hear the maid scream and show up to help them in their time of need.
Funeral for Phipps, Gillie secretly admires Mrs. Trumbull as she plays the organ... but the widow hasn’t shown yet. In fact, she doesn’t show at all, so Trumbull head to her house... where the Maid is leaving. The house has been cleared out and the Widow Phipps has moved to Boston without paying the Maid, let alone leaving behind any money to pay for the funeral.
They must find another customer...
A knock at the door - the eviction notice from Mr. Black.
Hey, a perfect customer! They can kill two birds with one pillow.
That night they ride out to Mr. Black’s house... but have trouble breaking in. The doors are all bolted from the inside as are all of the windows. But are the upstairs windows bolted? One window way at the top of the house seems to be open. Trumbull forces Gillie to climb the wall of the house... and he bumbles his way up to the window and into the house. Where Mr. Black is reading Macbeth in bed... outloud. Not asleep. He grabs a sword from his wall and begins *performing* the play! Spots Gillie and... has a heart attack!
The Doctor pronounces Mr. Black as dead, but his servant mentions that Mr. Black suffers from catalepsy. The Doctor runs a couple more Victorian era tests - and says Black is quite dead. Trumbull gets a customer without having to use the pillow. Trumbull and Gillie bring the dead Mr. Black back to the funeral parlor and lay him out...
And Gillie sees Mr. Black *move*! “What place is this?” Black says as he sits up. Trumbull explains that it’s the funeral parlor and *everyone* has seen that he’s dead, so... Mr. Black gets up and runs like hell! They catch him, but before they can kill him... he drops dead on the floor. They check him - dead - put him in the coffin (they only have the one) and head to the door to go to sleep when...
The coffin lid creaks open. “What place is this?”
Gillie and Trumbull rush back in and struggle with Mr. Black, trying to get the coffin lid closed. Eventually Trumbull hits him in the head with a hammer. They gag him and chain him inside the coffin...
The funeral for Mr. Black...
Black is laid out in his coffin as Mrs. Trumbull sings a funeral dirge “He is not dead, but sleeping”... Then Hinchely gives an amazing rambling eulogy for the crowd in the funeral parlor... forgetting the word “coffin” until he has a coughing fit. Just as the funeral ends, Mr. Black’s hand moves...
The bigger problem is that Mr. Black is not being buried, but put in the family crypt at the graveyard... which means that one coffin that Trumbull and Gillie have been using for the past 13 years will be locked inside the crypt’s gates and they will have to buy a new coffin... that may eat up much of what they made from this funeral! The crypt is locked, everyone leaves, and a voice from within the coffin asks: “What place is this?”
Celebration at Hinchley and Trumbull as they are paid... Trumbull tears up the eviction papers and fondles the stacks of silver coins in front of him, while Old Hinchley plays the fiddle and Mrs. Trumbull and Gillie dance together... Gillie has always had a crush on big bosomed Mrs. Trumbull. Mrs. Trumbull rejects his advances and goes to her husband... who would rather count his money than go up to bed with his wife. So she goes back to Gillie, and tells him that she will run away with him.
Meanwhile, at the graveyard (at the 60 minute mark) the Caretaker (Joe E. Brown) hears moaning and screaming in the night! He follows the sounds to Mr. Black’s crypt... and the lid pops open and Mr. Black gets out! The Caretaker faints, and Mr. Black is unleashed upon the world, seeking vengeance!
Mrs. Trumbull and Gillie prepare to run away together...
Mr. Black grabs an ax on the way to the funeral parlor...
Trumbull wakes up (drunk) after hearing a noise down in the basement and explores the dark and spooky room. Suspense builds as he pokes around - we know that Mr. Black and that ax are *somewhere* in the house. Trumbull is startled by a mirror, a painting of Hinchley, and even Rhubarb the cat... but the basement is empty. He goes back into the living room and his bottle... not seeing the muddy footprints on the stairs which lead up to the bedrooms.
Mrs. Trumbull is just finishing packing when the door handle to her bedroom begins to turn. She hears it, thinks it is Gillie, and prepares to welcome him to her ample bosom... but it’s Mr. Black and his ax! “Blood will have blood, they say!” She screams.
Both Trumbulll and Gillie race upstairs (separately) bumping into each other as they reach Mrs. Trumbull’s door. They break it open to find Mrs. Trumbull on the floor and Mr. Black swinging his ax down at her head! But the noise of the door causes him to miss her head by a fraction of an inch. He turns, raising the ax at the two men! Races at them! They both trip and his ax misses them. They run down the hallway into a spare bedroom, lock themselves inside. Before you can say THE SHINING, Mr. Black uses the ax on the door, punching a hole in it. Trumbull and Gillie find a hiding place as Mr. Black enters with the ax, and begins searching for them. At one point, Trumbull sees that Black has his back turned and races out of the hiding place. Gillie hears feet running down the stairs, comes out of the hiding place and says to Trumbull, “Thank heavens he has gone.” But it is *not* Trumbull on the other side of the room, it is Mr. Black with his ax!
Gillie races downstairs - tripping and rolling most of the way. Mr. Black moves down to where he is sprawled on the floor, lifts the ax and...
Trumbull shoots him.
Which only makes Mr. Black angry - he charges Trumbull with the ax!
Trumbull shoots him again.
Mr. Black goes down, dead.
Then stands up... quoting Shakespeare.
Then falls down dead.
Then stands up... more Shakespeare!
He keeps dying and then getting back up... until he finally seems to actually die. But who can really tell?
Mrs. Trumbull comes downstairs, finds Gillie at the base of the stairs and accuses Trumbull of killing him. She says she’s going to the police... and Trumbull strangles her. She falls to the floor, dead. When Gillie comes to, he sees her dead and attacks Trumbull with the sword which has been on the wall since Ac t 1. They get into a sword fight, ending with Trumbull hitting him on the head with the sword, and he falls to the floor, dead. Trumbull is surrounded by bodies, when there is a knock at the door.
The door opens - one of the Mourners from Mr. Black’s funeral says that Mr. Black has escaped from his crypt... he wasn’t dead after all!
Then looks down to Trumbull’s feet to see Mr. Black shot several times - dead now. And the bodies of Mrs. Trumbull and Gillie. He says he’s going to the police as he backs out the door. Trumbull has gone crazy and killed everyone! Trumbull passes out from all of the booze he’s consumed...
And Mrs. Trumbull wakes up - not quote dead - and sees Gillie laying near her, and then he wakes up... and they fall into each other’s arms. Each thought the other was dead. They leave in each other’s arms - to start a new life together.
Old Hinchley wanders downstairs wondering what all the racket is about, finds Trumbull passed out and prods him with a finger... Trumbull groans, and Hinchley says he must be feeling poorly. But wait - Trumbull always keeps that vial of “medicine” in his pocket! Hinchley takes out the vial, pours most of it into Trumbull’s mouth, sees that there are a few drops left and drinks it. Trumbull wakes up, discovers what Old Hinchley as done... poisoned him! Old Hinchley says he’s going back to bed and climbs back up the stairs as Trumbull dies from the poison below.
Rhubarb the cat wanders into the room, sits on dead Mr. Black’s chest...
Just as Mr. Black’s eyes pop open - sees the cat looking at him, and says: “What place is this?”
Starring: Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, Jack Nicholson.
Written by: Richard Matheson
Directed by: Roger Corman
Produced by: Roger Corman and James H. Nicholson (American International Pictures)
A gallon of comedy mixed in with the horror... which doesn’t quite work.
One of the things that seems to have happened is AIP and Roger Corman discovered there were many other well known horror stars of long ago who were still alive and needed work. So the film in the series before this TALES OF TERROR (which we won’t be looking at in this 13 Days) added Peter Lorre (who had starred in the HITCHCOCK PRESENTS episode MAN FROM THE SOUTH as that fellow who would bet his sleek sportscar in the casino parking lot against Steve McQueen’s little finger) and Basil Rathbone to the cast. That film was a trilogy of Poe stories, with each of the stars playing the lead in one of them, where RAVEN has all of the stars in one story. This film adds FRANKENSTEIN’s Boris Karloff (who was having a career resurrection due to hosting duties on THRILLER) and subtracts Basil Rathbone, but don’t worry - he’ll be back in the next film so he got to keep his SAG medical and dental plan going.
Screenwriter Richard Matheson said that one of the problems with the Poe adaptations is that almost all of the stories dealt with someone being buried before their time, in a wall or a crypt... and it was getting repetitious. So, by adapting Poe’s most famous *poem* they could do just about anything... and Matheson thought with that cast they could try a comedy, just to keep from repeating the dark and spooky old castle stories. But the problem is that the comedy here seems forced - it’s all pratfalls and broad humor. Unlike Corman’s trailer editor at New World Pictures, the awesome Joe Dante, who could easily blend horror and comedy in a film like THE HOWLING and have it be both scary and funny; Corman seems to only focus on the comedy at the expense of the horror - so we get broad comedy but not much that works as horror. This film was a hit, so maybe the audience was ready to laugh at Poe instead of scream... but it doesn’t hold up as well as the earlier entries.
The film opens with Raven poem read by Price with shots of ocean and castle....
In his study, son of a sorcerer Dr. Craven (Vincent Price) “draws” a raven (animated) and then the window blast open and it vanishes. He goes into a room and dusts off Lenore’s coffin - her portrait over it... wham - someone behind him! His daughter Estelle (Olive Sturgess), who wonders why he is still mourning two years after her stepmother died. Craven says that she was his one true love...
Later, a tapping at the window of Craven’s study - a Raven. He lets it in... and the bird begins talking! It’s the smart ass voice of Dr. Bedlo (Peter Lorre) who says he’s under and enchantment and needs to be turned back into his human self because these feather itch! Craven and the Raven go downstairs to his sorcerer father’s dusty old laboratory which is over run with tarantulas (for some reason) and they mix up a concoction (after looking through jars of eyeballs and other icky stuff). The Raven drinks the potion and turns back into Dr. Bedlo... except his arms are still covered with feathers (which itch). Craven says he’ll mix up some more of the potion, but he’s out of one of the ingredients: dead man’s hair... though his father is in the crypt downstairs and he probably wouldn’t mind.
They go down to the crypt, and Dr. Bedlo explains how he was turned into a Raven by the evil Dr. Scarabus (Boris Karloff) - who was Craven’s father’s rival... and took over the Brotherhood of Sorcery. Bedlo was having dinner with Scarabus and they had a dispute... and they ended up doing a “high noon” with sorcery... which Bedlo obviously lost. When Craven opens the coffin and cuts a lock of his dead father’s hair, the corpse grabs him and whispers “Beware!” They get the heck out of there.
After Bedlo has drank more of the potion and shed his feathers, he says he’s going back to Scarabus’ castle to get revenge... would Craven like to come along? When Craven refuses to go, Bedlo says that he has seen Lenore with Scarabus - Craven’s dead wife is two timing him! From beyond the grave! How is that even possible? Craven opens Lenore’s coffin... she’s still there. But maybe Scarabus has her soul? Craven agrees to go with Bedlo to confront master sorcerer Scarabus.
As they are leaving, the door blasts open and Craven’s butler Grimes rushes in with an ax and attacks them - he is under Scarabus’ spell. When he goes after daughter Estelle, Craven uses some magic to knock him out. When he returns too consciousness, he has no memory of what happened. Estelle insists on coming with them, and when the open the door - wham - there’s someone standing on the other side! Dr. Bedlo’s son Rexford (Jack Nicholson) who has come to fetch Bedlo, mom’s wondering where he is. Rexford offers to drive the coach since Grimes is still a little weird. Estelle flirts with Rexford - this is the romantic couple.
On the way there - Rexford becomes under Scarabus’ spell and drives the coach at dangerous speeds on a cliffside road. The spell lifts as they get to Scarabus’ evil castle. All four enter the castle... a much cheaper matte painting than in the other films. That’s okay, because the castle interior set kicks ass... a center fireplace in the massive parlor. This may be the most lavish of all of the castle interior sets in any of the Poe movies. Once inside, the door slams behind them, trapping them in the castle.
Scarabus makes a grand entrance, introducing himself to all of them. A charmer.
When Craven accuses him of imprisoning his wife’s soul in the castle, Scarabus “summons the truth” with his servant’s bell, and his Maid (Connie Wallace) enters - she does look a little like Lenore, but obviously isn’t her. Scarabus invites them to stay for dinner...
At dinner Scarabus claims he was the best friend of Craven’s Father, and only turned Bedlo into a Raven after he challenged him to a duel. Bedlo wants revenge... and his equipment back. Bedlo claims he can easily best Scarabus when he is sober, but Bedlo is never sober. Scarabus magically produces Bedlo’s equipment case and hands it to him to shut him up... but Bedlo grabs his magic wand from the case and tries to cast a spell on Scarabus - but Scarabus makes the wand go limp. When Bedlo tries to use another crazy magic contraption to attack Scarabus, it backfires - exploding Bedlo into a puddle of red goop. Rexford removes his hat to mourn his father... Craven tastes the goop, “Raspberry jam.”
Though everyone wants to leave, a storm is raging outside and Scarabus offers to put them up for the night. Each retires to their room... They decide to leave Bedlo on the floor in a puddle.
Estelle wanders through the castle at night - returning to her room - once inside, a hand grabs her - Rexford. He fears that Scarabus *killed* his father - not the device backfiring. He saw Scarabus moving his fingers slightly just before his father exploded. He fears that was just the beginning... that Scarabus has some evil plan for the rest of them.. Rexford wants Estelle to warn her father, but she says Craven now trusts his late father’s rival. But the door will not open - they are trapped in the room together. Rexford climbs out the window onto a narrow ledge and makes his way around the castle’s walls to the next window... the ledge crumbles beneath his feet at one point and he almost falls to the sea far below.
Meanwhile, Craven hears a noise outside his door... nobody there. But in the window behind him - his dead wife Lenore! (Hazel Court) He rushes to the balcony - but she is gone. Just his imagination?
Scarabus hears a noise and looks up - Lenore enters his bedroom. A ghost? No - the actual Lenore who faked her own death to hook up with the wealthy and powerful Scarabus. That’s not her body in the crypt in Craven’s basement. Scarabus and Lenore are schemers...
Rexford climbs down a vine into a dark room... where he is attacked by someone in the dark! They struggle, until Rexford gets him onto the floor and drags him into the light... it’s Dr. Bedlo - alive and not raspberry jam! Bedlo used magic to fake his death and/or transformation into jam and has been hiding ever since. Bedlo goes to confront Scarabus (and Lenore) and Rexford rescues Estelle and then they go to save Craven... and escape the castle!
Before they can escape, Scarabus uses magic to seal the exit doors, tie up Bedlo, and turn Craven into a statue. They end up in a prison cell in Scarabus’ basement/torture chamber. Lenore visits - telling Craven that she dumped him for Scarabus.
Scarabus begins the night’s festivities - he turns Bedlo back into a raven and he flies away, puts Estelle in a stockade and says he will torture her unless Craven gives up his magic secrets. But Bedlo flies back, pecks through the ropes binding Rexford, so that Rexford can attack the Torture Assistant. Scarabus and Craven end up in kind of a sorcerers Mexican stand off... and Scarabus says the only way to settle this is a high noon style duel to the death!
The big duel to the death: The others watch from a balcony over the massive parlor as Scarabus and Craven practically touch fists in the center of the room before backing step-by-step to a pair of chairs facing each other on opposite sides of the room. They take their seats, and the battle begins! There’s even a Sergio Leone close up of their eyes staring each other down! Each makes things appear to destroy the other, from snakes to bats to cannons to making gargoyles come alive to levitation to throwing fireballs to anything else that can be done with props or cheap animation. Finally we get to the end of the bout when both sorcerers use their fingers to blast magic spells at each other (like laser beams)... and the power of Craven’s magic is stronger than Scaracus’... who collapses onto the floor. Craven has won!
And Lenore rushes into his arms - she has always loved him!
But Craven rejects her, and takes his family home with him as Scarabus’ castle begins burning to the ground and collapsing from the collateral damage hits during the magic duel. They run out of the castle - that terrible matte painting now made even more fake looking by the addition of flames - and ride the coach back home.
In the rubble of the castle, Scarabus and Lenore are alive... but trapped together. Maybe forever.
Back home, Craven gives his blessing to the Rexford/Estelle romance and then refuses to turn Bedlo back into human form. When Bedlo won’t shut up, he seals the Raven’s beak... quote the Raven nevermore.
Fade Out.
Tomorrow we'll look at a more successful comedy horror flick starring Vincent Price and Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff... with Basil Rathbone delivering one of my favorite lines of dialogue! A COMEDY OF TERRORS.
