Lisa Snellings-Clark, one of my favorite 3 dimensional artists whose praises I sang in this post here (Lisa is a fantastic artist…you should read this post and if you already have, read it again!), recently had a rat sale. I discovered Lisa through Neil Gaiman who has written several short stories based on Lisa’s sculptures. Many years back Neil called Lisa a ratbag and the idea for the Neil Rat was born. More rats soon followed. Lisa recently had a sale and her rats left her studio like…well…rats from a sinking ship. And some found their way to my home. I picked up the Neil Rat, of course:

Neil’s regular mode of dress is black with a black leather jacket and it will be no surprise that I also couldn’t resist the Poe Rat:

In fact I bought two of those so I could give one to my baby sister for a much belated birthday gift!

Soon after this sale she unveiled the Grim Ratter, pictured at the top of this post, who arrived just the other day in time to preside over the Halloween festivities. Each rat is hand painted and the Neil and Poe rats are individually numbered, part of a limited set. The are wonderful little things and so very fun. I’m very happy to have these small pieces of Lisa’s art. Her website is a great place to follow the creative process. She often shows pictures of works as she is creating them…currently she is working on a very large rat sculpture for the front yard for Halloween. Lisa will be having a sale very soon for the coming Christmas season. I encourage you to visit her site often.
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As we ramp up to Monday’s celebration of All Hallow’s Eve there are some potentially interesting things to watch on the old television this weekend. The History Channel is showing:

On Saturday evening at 8/7 central and again on Monday evening as part of a Halloween day extravaganza that features:

12/1cHistory’s Mysteries: Amityville: Horror or Hoax?
1/2cHistory’s Mysteries: The Real Dracula
4/3c Time Machine: Bloodlines – Dracula Family Tree
5/4c History’s Mysteries: Ancient Monster Hunters
6/5c Haunted History Of Halloween
7/6c Haunted History Of Halloween
8/7c Houdini: Unlocking The Mystery
10/9c UFO Files: Russian Roswell
11/10c Weird U.S. Creepy Curses

The Discover Channel has Twisted History: Vampires on Sunday at 10/9c

The Learning Channel (TLC) has Possessed Possessions on Sunday at 8/7c

and The Travel Channel has Most Haunted: Live beginning today with rebroadcasts throughout the weekend in which the team goes on a search for Jack the Ripper.

Looks like some fun, spooky stuff for the weekend!
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This weekend I will be posting some pictures this week of the Tarts‘ First Annual Halloween Party as well as pre-party pics of my decorating and the party invites that I made a few days ago. Its some fun stuff so check back in if you have time. Have a wonderful Halloween weekend everyone!

Ingrid Pitt is the unequivocal Queen of Horror. In a time when few if any women gained the genre notoriety that Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, or Vincent Price enjoyed, Ingrid Pitt attained cult status with her roles in Hammer and Amicus horror films and that cult status continues to grow to this day.

It is no startling revelation to regular readers that I am enamored of the classic films in all genres and that I have a particular fondness for classic horror. I feel especially drawn to the work of Ingrid Pitt because we share a special bond: we have the same birthday!

Ingrid Pitt was born Ingoushka Petrov in Poland to a German father and Jewish mother on November 21st, 1937. Her early life was every bit as tumultous as that of the scream queens she has portrayed in film. Pitt entered the world on a train in Poland as her parents were attempting to flee the growing Nazi threat in Berlin. Her early years were spent with her parents as they stayed with various family members. Ingrid’s father was a top designer of lighter-than-air aircraft and the Nazi’s eventually caught up with him. Ingrid Pitt and her mother began three years of internment being placed in the Stutthof Concentration Camp. The camp was eventually liquidated and Ingrid and her mother fled to the woods and lived with partisans. This was not to be Pitt’s last experience with dictatorial government.

She was living in Berlin when the wall was erected and her outspoken criticism of the East Berlin government brought her to the attention of the Volkspolizei. In true dramatic fashion while fleeing from them she dove into the River Spree and was rescued by “a handsome U.S. Lieutenant”. She eventually married him and came to America. After her marriage ended she traveled to Spain and was “discovered” while watching a bullfight. She did numerous Spanish films and then traveled to Hollywood. After small roles in films including Doctor Zhivago and The Omegans she got her break out role in the Clint Eastwood, Richard Burton film Where Eagles Dare.

Where Eagles Dare is a WWII film about espionage and killing Nazi’s that has gained cult status of its own over the years. After spending time in a concentration camp as a child, killing Nazi’s in a film must have been oddly cathartic for Pitt.

(Pitt in Where Eagles Dare)

Pitt’s exotic looks and eastern European accent brought her to the attention of Hammer Films executives and they cast her in the role of Mircalla in Vampire Lovers, the film loosely based on J. Sheridan le Fanu’s classic short story Carmilla.

Vampire Lovers also starred Peter Cushing and it established Ingrid Pitt as a bona fide horror queen. Hammer films was going through a period in which they were introducing more flesh and blood into the horror genre so there is a bit of inexplicable (silly) nudity in the film. While somewhat convoluted at times the film maintains a nice creepy atmosphere throughout. Both Pitt and Cushing are fantastic and the film was a box office success but it pales in comparison to what it could have been had they followed the story more faithfully.

Ingrid Pitt’s next vampiric role was in the episode “The Cloak” in Amicus Productions film The House That Dripped Blood.

The House That Dripped Blood is an excellent horror anthology with an ensemble cast that features both Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing as well as other quality actors and actresses. This film also enjoyed box office success and it is much deserved as it is a great anthology film, I highly recommend it.

Pitt continued in the vampire vein with a return to Hammer Films to star in Countess Dracula. Ingrid Pitt played the titular role in this film loosely based on the legendary exploits of 16th century Transylvanian Countess Elizabeth Bathory. It was thought that she killed upwards of 600 young women and bathed in their blood, believing that this was they key to eternal youth and beauty. This is another very good classic horror film made all the more eerie because of its inspiration in true events.

These three movies as well as a role in the lesser know but equally good film The Wicker Man firmly established Ingrid Pitt as the undisputed Queen of Horror. During the 60’s and 70’s both Hammer Films and Amicus Productions created many lasting classic works of horror starring a multitude of memorable, beautiful actresses but none has made as lasting an impression and garnered such a strong following as Ingrid Pitt. In addition to her classic beauty the quality of her performances caused her to rise above the rest to the role of Queen.

In addition to her film work Ingrid Pitt is an accomplished author of novels and her more well known Bedside Companion series: The Ingrid Pitt Bedside Companion for Vampire Lovers and The Ingrid Pitt Bedside Companion for Ghosthunters. She is also a regular columnist for Shivers Magazine and maintains contact with the public through her website (I have been a proud member of the Ingrid Pitt fan club…geek!) and by touring the convention circuit.

In 1999 Ingrid Pitt’s autobiography Life’s A Scream was released and it is a wonderful book chronicling her harrowing childhood and eventual emergence to scream queen cult status.

It is a fitting time of year to celebrate this wonderful horror film siren and I will no doubt be wishing her a ‘Happy Birthday’ come November 21st!

The towering presence, the distinct voice, and a maniacal laugh like no other…Vincent Price was the consumate master of terror and one of a small cadre of actors best known for the mark they made on the horror genre (Peter Lorre, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Boris Karloff, Basil Rathbone and Bela Lugosi being the others). I don’t remember exactly when I saw my first Vincent Price movie as a child but I do remember that the experience changed my attitude about my middle name…Vincent…from one of dislike to one of pride. In rediscovering the films of Vincent Price as an adult, thanks in large part to the excellent MGM Midnight Movies collection, I have become a huge fan.

Today marks the 12th anniversary of the death of Vincent Price. Price was born in St. Louis, Missouri in May of 1911 and died October 25th, 1993 of lung cancer. In honor of this anniversary I’d like to discuss a few of my favorite Vincent Price films, but first a little history. Despite his macabre legacy, Vincent Price did not begin his career as an actor.

Vincent Price actually began his creative pursuits in the art world. He obtained degrees in Art History and English at Yale University, taught school for a year, and then went to London to receive a Master of Fine Arts. While in London Price got a taste for the theatre and began performing small roles on stage. This eventually led Price to Broadway as the leading man in the production of Victoria Regina opposite Helen Hayes. Vincent Price’s knowledge of and love of art never left him. In 1951 he founded the Vincent Price Gallery at East Los Angeles College and in later years during the filming of various horror films overseas he was able to procure pieces throughout Europe.

In the late 1950’s Vincent Price began what became a steady stream of now classic horror films. His place as a master of the genre was firmly established by his 1960 role as Roderick Usher in Roger Corman’s interpretation of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher.

This was Corman’s first Poe film. It was shot in 15 days with a budget of $200,000- a much longer shooting schedule and more costly film than Corman was used to. Despite the tendency for many horror films of the day playing to limited audiences this film ended up being one of the top 5 box office hits of 1960. It is by far my favorite Vincent Price movie and the sense of dread and suspense hold up as well today as they did when the film was made. It led to other Corman/Price collaborations one of the best of which is their second film, The Pit and The Pendulum.

This great double feature disk set contains two fantastic Price flicks. The first, Comedy of Terrors, is a black comedy featuring four Masters of the Macabre: Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff and Basil Rathbone. Vincent Price plays Waldo Trumbull. Together with his assistant (Peter Lorre) they have run Price’s father-in-law’s (Karloff) funeral home business into the ground. When their landlord (Rathbone) begins to hound them for payment the two set out to increase the need for their services the entrepreneurial way…by resorting to murder. The film showcases the marvelous comedic talent of all four actors. The Raven is based loosely on the tale by Edgar Allan Poe and stars Price, Lorre, and Karloff as wizards mixed up in a duel for magical supremacy. Both comical and suspenseful The Raven also stars a very young Jack Nicholson in one of his earliest film roles. Both films are great fun.

House on Haunted Hill is a William Castle directed film that employed many gimmicks that soon became common place in haunted house thrillers: blood dripping from the ceilings, severed heads, sudden skeletal appearances, eerie organ music. In this film Price is married to a greedy gold-digger who decides she wants a Halloween party for her friends. Price invites 5 guests, gives them each hand guns as party favors, and offers $10,000 to whoever will spend the night in his ‘haunted’ house. The movie is very tame by today’s standards but is enjoyable for not only the performance of Price but also the nostalgic look back at horror in a simpler age. One of the great things that theatres used to do in the past was employ gimmicks to scare audience goers. In the case of House on Haunted Hill the gimmick was Emergo…simply a skeleton on a guide wire that would emerge over viewers heads, appearing as if it came from the scream. While admittedly hokey sounding I imagine it would be quite a shock if you weren’t expecting it. (Another similar Castle gimmick was employed during the original theatrical run of Price’s film The Tingler, this time through the use of Percepto. Random seats were rigged with small motors that would come on during various scenes of the film giving the audience the perception that The Tingler was attacking them. I wish they did silly stuff like that today.)

Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine, produced in 1965, is one of the more fun films in Vincent Price’s carreer. A spoof on Price’s earlier horror films, spy thrillers, and the beach blanket movies this film also stars Frankie Avalon, Dwayne Hickman (Dobie Gillis) and the beautiful Susan Hart…along with a bevy of “sultry, bikini-clad sex sirens”. Dr. Goldfoot (Price) builds an army of female robots, dressed in bikini’s of course, who are programmed to seduce the world’s wealthiest men into signing over their fortunes. After quick marriages said men are then to meet an untimely demise, leaving their fortunes to their beautiful wives…thus securing them for Dr. Goldfoot’s nefarious purposes. This is a very funny movie not the least because of dialogue that had to be considered very racy for 1965. Though tame by today’s standards the sexual innuendos are quite funny. Watching this film you can see where the ideas for a great deal of the first Austin Powers film came from. There are great cameos in this film as well from stars of the day including a very funny one of Annette Funicello. Great fun, I highly recommend it.

There are so many other great Price films: The Bat, The Fly, House of Wax, Tales of Terror, Haunted Palace, The Last Man on Earth, The Abominable Dr. Phibes…the list goes on and on.
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Tim Burton’s first film is an homage to the great Vincent Price. As unlikely as it may seem Burton’s first job was working for Walt Disney. It will come as no surprise that he had difficulty fitting in and could not adjust to the Disney style of drawing. Burton was on the verge of leaving Disney when he was given the opportunity to make a six minute short film based on a children’s story he had written. The story was about a little boy, Vincent, who immersed himself in Edgar Allan Poe and wanted desperately to become Vincent Price. The story was given to Price in the hopes that he would narrate and he heartily agreed, saying afterwards that it “was the most gratifying thing that ever happened. It was immortality–better than a star on Hollywood Boulevard”. Once Price was onboard the film was greenlighted. Vincent was shot with the combination of 2-D animation and the 3-D stop motion animation that would later make Burton famous with the film The Nightmare Before Christmas. I have not been able to find a downloadable version of the film but it is available as an extra on the Nightmare Before Christmas DVD. It is wonderful and well worth watching. You can read more about it here, including the poem/story that Price narrates over the animation. (The torrent link is still active on that site. You have to go to www.bittorrent.com to download the software and then download the Vincent Torrent file. It takes awhile but once done you can view in as an .avi in Real Player)
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Vincent Price was a terrific actor whose legacy goes far beyond his fantastic horror films. His art gallery and donations of art collections to various other galleries live on as memories of his artistic talent. And somewhere in the archives are episodes of a regular cooking show that Price hosted later in life…something I didn’t even know about until I started researching this post. I enjoy all the great masters of classic horror but have always held Price to be the best. Vincent, today you are remembered.

Halloween tradition is not complete without an annual viewing of the 1966 Melendez/Schultz classic It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Linus Van Pelt’s yearly vigil to his sincere pumpkin patch in hopes of a visit from the Great Pumpkin has been a part of my Halloween consciousness as far back as I can remember. In those days yearly specials like this had to be planned for in advance because they were shown one time on television and one time only…if you missed it you were out of luck until next year! My parents were very generous in that they always allowed us to watch these annual shows despite the fact that they most likely wanted to be watching something else. There are many Peanuts animated specials but this one and the Christmas one are by far the best. Every year I enjoy watching Charlie Brown get rock after rock as he trick or treats with the gang. It is said that when the special first aired kids felt so sorry for Charlie Brown that they actually sent in candy for him. Snoopy battles the Red Baron, Linus waxes eloquent about his pumpkin theology, and poor Sally learns a hard lesson about sacrifice for the sake of love. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown can be viewed the old-fashioned way, on television, tomorrow night at 7 p.m. central time on your local ABC station.
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Roald Dahl, author of such great children’s classics as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, and Matida is also a well-known writer of adult short stories of mystery and suspense. This collection of tales are actually stories from other authors that were hand-picked by Dahl. In 1958 Dahl teamed up with a Hollywood producer to work on an idea of doing a weekly television series based on classic short ghost stories. To that end Dahl read 749 stories from the British Museum Library. Dahl had very high standards in regards to the literary quality of these tales and out of those stories he only found 24 that he believes are good ghost stories. The series did not work out (there is an interesting story in the introduction explaining what happened) and years later Roald Dahl gathered together 14 of these stories in book form. This book is one of the best examples of old-timey ghost stories that I have ever read. These are stories written to thrill and chill at a time when it would have been unheard of to write tales filled with blood and gore. These tales are all about atmosphere and suspense and the dread of things that go bump in the night written by classic authors such as Rosemary Timperley, E.F. Benson, A.M. Burrage, J. Sheridan le Fanu, Edith Wharton and others. These stories are all easy, quick reads that would appeal to anyone. Great for cold, dark nights.
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It had been years since I had seen Tim Burton’s interpretation of Washington Irving’s classic tale The Legend of Sleepy Hollow so, courtesy of Netflix, I sat down and watched it this weekend. I had forgotten how thoroughly enjoyable this film is. Burton sat out to make a movie that was part Grimm’s fairy tale and part classic horror reminiscent of films he had seen as a child. As I sat watching this I realized that this is the movie that Brothers Grimm could have been had either Burton directed it or had Gilliam had the freedom that Burton enjoys to make the film he wanted to make. Sleepy Hollow is a much more well rounded film than Brothers Grimm. In it Burton balances the elements of horror, fairy tale, adventure, romance, and humor in such a way that it is truly a complete film…one element does not outweigh the other. In watching the film and the ‘making of’ featurette I was struck by how many tongue-in-cheek elements there are in the film that are indeed comical but do not make the film feel cheesy or campy.

The film has all the trappings of a typical Burton film, dark and whimsical. The flashback scenes showing Ichabod Crane’s mother (played by Burton’s love interest at the time Lisa Marie) were beautifully rendered and added moments of lush color in an otherwise dark and eerie film. The ensemble cast in this film is excellent and I especially enjoy Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci. Burton seems to be able to pull the most unusual and amazing performances from Depp. This film is a great homage to those classic Vincent Price/Christopher Lee horror films without making fun of them. The ‘making of’ featurette mentioned earlier was terrific. I was amazed to learn that they made the entire forest on a sound stage. It is the best example of a creepy, forbidden wood that I’ve seen in any film. I particularly like Burton’s design for the Tree of the Dead which plays a pivotal role in the film.

While I was watching the film I found myself thinking that the Headless Horseman’s fighting moves looked awfully familiar. In watching the behind the scenes features it turns out that they chose to use a stunt man with a blue screen mask on so that they could maintain the body proportions while filming. The stunt man they chose was Ray Parks, who went on years later to become famous for his portrayal of Darth Maul in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Much of his Darth Maul fighting style can be seen in his interpretation of the Headless Horseman. Sleepy Hollow is more Burton goodness that makes for great autumn viewing.

Have a wonderful Monday everyone…one more week to All Hallow’s Eve!!!