Five Entertaining Horror Films Of The 1950's

Here's the next batch of films. As usual in reverse order

5.THE BLACK CASTLE ( 1952)In 18th century Austria an Englishman goes in search of two missing friends and he comes up against an evil sadistic count who lives in the title castle.Not bad, very late entry in the Universal studios "Gothic horror" series, although this is more of a adventure than a horror film and is sort of like " The most dangerous game". Film looks good and has a good cast, Boris Karloff here is not a baddie but still dies! Lon Chaney Jnr is completely wasted as he often was in later film roles. Stephen mcNally is quite good as the evil count and star Richard Green is better than usual.

4.THE VAMPIRE ( 1957)A doctor accidently takes some experimental pills made from bat venom and becomes a wild vamparic creature that hungers for blood. If you get past the silly basic plot this is a decent enough little "B" film for it's time. It is more reminiscent of a werewolf or Dr Jeckyll & Mr Hyde film than a vampire one. It is short running at 70 minutes and star John Beal gives a sympathetic performance.

3.THE MUMMY (1959) As i have said before on the forum, Egyptian mummy films are perhaps my least favourite horror films, repeatative, not scary and a tatty lumbering loose bandaged mummy on the prowl. Here though in this classy Hammer Production, it at least has some life and at least a fair amount of menace thanks to Christopher Lee's powerful, no nonsense performance as the bandaged one.He again crosses swords with Peter Cushing of course which gives it a few extra plus points. proberly my favourite version of the mummy films.

2. CULT OF THE COBRA (1954) Six GI's  in Asia just after World War 2, go to a cult meeting  in secret and offend the cult by taking photographs. The leader of the cult curses them and says they will die one by one. Two years later back in the U.S they start dying although all meet a mysterious woman with the power of becoming a snake. Surprisingly good little "B" horror thriller, in my opinion an overlooked and under rated universal studios film. It is at times reminiscent of Val Lewton's "Cat People" and IMO is just as good. Cast of T.v stars to be such as Richard Long,Marshall Thompson,Jack Kelly and David Janssen is interesting, Faith Domargue as the woman is allurring and film is engrossing.

1. I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF (1957)A troubled teenager ( is there any other) seeks help in hypnotherapy but an eccentric professor regresses him back to prehistoric times and he becomes a bloodthirsty werewolf on the prowl around the campus. Classic " Teenage" horror film that perhaps is a little dated with it's teenage " Hip" language and ways of the time but still entertains as a whole. A very successful film it made a "Star" of Michael Landon who is pretty good and went on to t.V series fame in " Bonanza" and " Little House On The Prairie" and " Highway To heaven" later. Dependable Whit Bissell is the eccentric professor here and was so good he also appeared in the follow up " I was  A Teenage Frankenstein " which is also good fun but not as good as werewolf. The werewolf effects while not great are certainly passable. Film has two classic scenes, the atmospheric and unseen creature pursuing a luckless student ( actually a male) and the first time you see the werewolf in his transformation glory when he is in a gym watching a girl on exercise bars hanging upside down who suddenly sees and becomes the victim of the slavering bloodthirsty hairy fiend.Much better than it's given credit for.

there we are. i hope you find something to enjoy there. next time i shall cover 5 pieces of solid entertainment from the 1960's. oh yeah, forgot to mention those of you who inexplicably won't watch black & white films, The Mummy is in COLOUR!

Last edited by wolfman1959 (2012-06-30 04:53:26)