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Night Of The Eagle (1962), repackaged as Burn, Witch, Burn for the American market, was the second big screen adaptation of Fritz Leiber's debut novel Conjure Wife. It is reissued on Blu-ray by Studio Canal.

The film has been cleaned up. This is the high quality work that is typical of Studio Canal. It can be seen in the rendition of the rugged Cornish coastline and tumultuous seas that feature in part of the film.

There are a number of special features on the disc. The audio commentary by the late Richard Matheson is unfortunately sparse. If you watch the film with it turned on you are in essence watching a silent film. Some of what he says is interesting, but these insights are few and far between. Anna Bogutskaya does a 25 minute segment putting some aspects of the film into a female context.

One thing the Blu-ray could do.

Studiocanal announce a superb new restoration of Night Of The Eagle, as part of the Cult Classics Collection. Dare you believe in the existence of witches in this nerve-shattering, atmospheric horror starring Peter Wyngarde (Jason King) and Janet Blair (I Love Trouble)? The film will be available on 1st July 2024 on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital, with the striking original UK poster artwork featuring on the sleeve

Based on the novel Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber – a story so good it’s been filmed three times – Night Of The Eagle (also known as Burn, Witch, Burn) is a taut and terrifying film that provides genuine chills, as well as a horrifying twist, and remains a much-loved cult classic to this day. Directed by Sidney Hayers (Circus of Horrors), with a screenplay by three masters of the macabre, Richard Matheson (I Am Legend), Charles Beaumont (The Premature Burial) and George Baxt (Vampire...

In the fall of 1979, Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and the rest of the cast and crew arrived on location in the woods of Tennessee to make a movie called "The Evil Dead." It wasn't always called that; its original title was "The Book of the Dead," and there were more suggested titles along the way. Thankfully Raimi went for economy, and the title we know today matches the film: Concise, scary, and in-your-face. 

It also wasn't the first time that Raimi and friends had embarked on such a project. A year earlier, the young filmmaker rustled up $1600 to make a 30-minute proof-of-concept called "Within the Woods" to showcase his team's talent and raise money for their first feature-length movie. It is only just about watchable, but it is fascinating to see some ideas and techniques that Raimi would later use taking shape in the trial run.

"Within the Woods" helped...

Powerhouse Indicator’s first foray into the Universal library yields six noir thrillers, all crime-related and all different: the list introduces us to scheming businessmen, venal confidence crooks, black-market racketeers, a femme fatale, a gangster deportee and baby stealers. The B&w features are enriched with some of the best actors of the postwar years, and the titles themselves are a litany of vice and sin: The Web, Larceny, Kiss the Blood Off My Hands, Abandoned, Deported and Naked Alibi.

Universal Noir #1

Region B Blu-ray

The Web, Larceny, Kiss the Blood Off My Hands, Abandoned, Deported, Naked Alibi

Powerhouse Indicator

1948-1954 / B&w / Street Date November 14, 2022 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £49.99

Starring: Ella Raines, Edmond O’Brien, Vincent Price, William Bendix; John Payne, Joan Caulfield, Dan Duryea, Shelly Winters, Dorothy Hart; Joan Fontaine, Burt Lancaster, Robert Newton; Dennis O’Keefe, Gale Storm, Jeff Chandler, Raymond Burr; Marta Toren, Jeff Chandler, Marina Berti, Richard Rober; Sterling Hayden,...

Fantasy is once again resurgent on our television screens. "House of the Dragon," a spin-off of the mega-hit "Game of Thrones," is in the middle of its first season. Meanwhile, Amazon has launched "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power," one of the most expensive television productions ever made. As a fan of genre fiction, I suppose I should be celebrating. Instead, I can't help but be frustrated. The genre of fantasy includes countless weird and fascinating works, including the award-winning "Broken Earth" trilogy published in just the past few years. Yet several of the novels being adapted are epic fantasy stories published in the 1990s. What about everything else?

The following is a list of fantasy works I believe would make excellent television. Some are set in other worlds, others are set in ours. Some are short stories, others are long-running works of webfiction. I sought to...

It’s smooth noir sailing with this polished noir from Universal-International and its choice cast of pros — Edmond O’Brien, Ella Raines and William Bendix, plus Vincent Price doing an excellent turn as a Machiavellian businessman, a ‘frame’ expert with a side specialty in double-dealing. Director Michael Gordon earns an early credit at Universal-International with a nice look: almost all exteriors are richly photographed nighttime scenes. Ella Raines is particularly good — despite the cover illustration, she’s not a femme fatale, just a cautious independent woman.

The Web

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1947 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 87 min. / Street Date July 13, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: Edmond O’Brien, Ella Raines, William Bendix, Vincent Price, Maria Palmer, John Abbott, Fritz Leiber, Howland Chamberlain, Tito Vuolo.

Cinematography: Irving Glassberg

Production Designer Art Directors: Bernard Herzbrun, James Sullivan

Film Editor: Russel F. Schoengarth

Original Music: Hans J. Salter

Written by William Bowers, Bertram Millhauser...

Inner Sanctum Mysteries—Franchise Collection

Blu ray

Mill Creek Entertainment

1943, 1944, 1945 / 63, 64, 61, 62, 66 Min. / 1.33:1

Starring Lon Chaney Jr., J. Carroll Naish, Evelyn Ankers

Cinematography by Virgil Miller, Paul Ivano, Maury Gertsman

Directed by Reginald LeBorg, Harold Young, John Hoffman, Wallace Fox

For the first eight years of his career, Lon Chaney Jr. was just a face in the crowd—that all changed with 1939’s Of Mice and Men. The role of Lennie Small, a man-child who didn’t know his own strength, elevated the 33 year old actor to stardom but also typecast him as the perennial victim of circumstances—a B movie Hamlet. Offscreen, Chaney behaved more like Falstaff—his favorite pastimes were drinking, brawling, and more drinking. If Hollywood began to view him as a loose cannon, the actor sealed his own fate when he signed on as Larry Talbot, a discontented aristocrat who was more at home baying at the moon.

Hingston & Olsen Publishing is pleased to announce that Ghost Box III, the conclusion to our terrifying trilogy of horror-story box sets edited and introduced by Patton Oswalt, is now on sale. Gbiii contains one last selection of Oswalt’s favourite scary stories, from writers like Charles Beaumont, Poppy Z. Brite, Fritz Leiber, Richard Matheson, David J. Schow, and …

The post On sale now: Ghost Box III, edited by Patton Oswalt appeared first on Hnn | Horrornews.net.

Grand action entertainment bursts forth on the high seas, showing us how much production value Golden Hollywood could lavish on an exciting, artful swashbuckler. Errol Flynn is at his glorious best, backed by greats like Flora Robson, Henry Daniell and Claude Rains in fine form. The special effects and full-sized ship sets impress in ways that computer generated images never will. And the rousing music of Erich Wolfgang Korngold seals the deal — the term ‘Timeless Classic’ was invented for marvels like this.

The Sea Hawk

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1940 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 127 min. / Street Date December 18, 2018 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Errol Flynn, Brenda Marshall, Claude Rains, Donald Crisp, Flora Robson, Alan Hale, Henry Daniell, Una O’Connor, James Stephenson, Gilbert Roland, William Lundigan, Julien Mitchell, Montagu Love, J.M. Kerrigan, David Bruce, Fritz Leiber, Francis McDonald, Pedro de Cordoba, Ian Keith, Jack La Rue, Halliwell Hobbes, Victor Varconi,...

The Brit List, the UK’s version of the Black List, received 134 script recommendations this year. The list of praiseworthy unproduced film scripts was led by supernatural thriller Benny In The Dark from screenwriter Phillip Morgan. Check out the full-list below.

The list, managed by UK producer Alexandra Arlango (The Duchess), is pulled together from recommendations by more than 90 UK film companies. To qualify, projects must receive a minimum of three recommendations.

The Brit List celebrates its tenth anniversary this year with a networking event in London on Monday 19 November. Since launch, 70 movies to appear on the list have gone into production, including pics such as The King’s Speech and Lion. This year also saw the launch of The Brit List TV as well as The Brit List website.

Arlango said, “The Brit List is not a competition, it’s a showcase. Our intention is twofold: to put the...

Projects include Phillip Morgan’s Benny In The Dark.

The Brit List, the annual collection of unproduced UK screenplays, has unveiled its 2018 line up.

Now in its 10th year, the list highlights film projects voted for by an anonymous group of film industry professionals from more than 90 companies, including agents, financiers, producers and distributors.

This year there are 18 projects on the list. Topping them is Phillip Morgan’s Benny In The Dark, a supernatural thriller set in the 1950s, which received a total of nine recommendations. The film is set up at Tessa Ross and Juliette Howell’s House Productions.

Just words. Words prophesied in the dark of a movie theater. Words meant to ward off evil spirits, to protect against malicious spells, to keep Beelzebub himself from shedding wickedness on those who would feast on the silver screen fascinations about to be conjured in the theater. And through the utter blackness, within the darkness, the final words of the baritone narrator harken to the viewer to “enjoy” the film they are about to see.

It’s an effective way to start a horror film, and in 1962 I’m sure it had the same chilling effect as it did in the midnight hour of my recent viewing. Night of the Eagle, alternatively known in the United States as Burn, Witch, Burn, is a fascinating suburban nightmare that brings horror into the home. Gone are the darkened castles of Universal’s canon and missing are the European estates familiar from the...

The world of cinema has always been filled with dreamers, and a lot of those dreamers start out with nothing more than a Super 8 or 16mm camera, all the way up to the latest iPhones; little backyard excursions with friends and sisters or parents to fill out the cast for a monster on the loose or a super sleuth flick. Every once in a while there’s genuine talent to back up the enthusiasm; our Raimi’s and Coscarelli’s bear this out. But before them a group of enthusiastic teens actually had their vision realized, and eventually a mutated form of it invaded drive-ins as Equinox (1970), an inspirational and energetic full blown monster mash.

Released in October, Equinox began as a project in the mid ‘60s for creature kids Dennis Muren, David Allen and Mark McGee, combining their love of Famous Monsters of Filmland and Ray Harryhausen’s mesmerizing...

Merle Oberon movies: Mysterious star of British and American cinema. Merle Oberon on TCM: Donning men's clothes in 'A Song to Remember,' fighting hiccups in 'That Uncertain Feeling' Merle Oberon is Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Month of March 2016. The good news: the exquisite (and mysterious) Oberon, whose ancestry has been a matter of conjecture for decades, makes any movie worth a look. The bad news: TCM isn't offering any Oberon premieres despite the fact that a number of the actress' films – e.g., Temptation, Night in Paradise, Pardon My French, Interval – can be tough to find. This evening, March 18, TCM will be showing six Merle Oberon movies released during the first half of the 1940s. Never a top box office draw in the United States, Oberon was an important international star all the same, having worked with many of the top actors and filmmakers of the studio era.

'Humoresque': Joan Crawford and John Garfield. 'Humoresque' 1946: Saved by Joan Crawford Directed by Jean Negulesco from a screenplay by Clifford Odets and Zachary Gold (loosely based on a Fannie Hurst short story), Humoresque always frustrates me because its first 25 minutes are excruciatingly boring – until Joan Crawford finally makes her appearance during a party scene. Crawford plays Helen Wright, a rich society lush in love with a tough-guy violin player, Paul Boray (John Garfield), who happens to be in love with his music. Fine support is offered by Paul's parents, played by Ruth Nelson and the fabulous chameleon-like J. Carroll Naish. Oscar Levant is the sarcastic, wisecracking piano player, who plays his part to the verge of annoyance. (Spoilers ahead.) Something wrong with that woman The Humoresque scenes between Paul and his mother are particularly intriguing, as the mother conveys her objections to Helen by lamenting, "There's something wrong with a woman like that!

Inner Sanctum

Written by Jerome T. Gollard

Directed by Lew Landers

USA, 1948

Two travellers, strangers to one another, meet on a train. One is a young, attractive, if tempestuous woman named Marie (Eve Miller), the other a much older man, Dr. Valonius (Fritz Leiber). The man has an uncanny ability to read the future with alarming accuracy, demonstrating his skill with simple predictions that impress his new traveling companion. He then shares a story he knows about a woman with the same personality as Marie. The story begins with a man named Henry Dunlop (Charles Russell) getting off a train at a small town only to be hysterically accosted by his current lover. Henry inadvertently kills the woman and, in a state of panic, dumps the cadaver on the balcony of the last cart just as the locomotive departs. Stuck in a tiny town on a rainy night, Henry finds...

Paul Henreid: From lighting two cigarettes and blowing smoke onto Bette Davis’ face to lighting two cigarettes while directing twin Bette Davises Paul Henreid is back as Turner Classic Movies’ Star of the Month of July 2013. TCM will be showing four movies featuring Henreid (Now, Voyager; Deception; The Madwoman of Chaillot; The Spanish Main) and one directed by him (Dead Ringer). (Photo: Paul Henreid lights two cigarettes on the set of Dead Ringer, while Bette Davis remembers the good old days.) (See also: “Paul Henreid Actor.”) Irving Rapper’s Now, Voyager (1942) was one of Bette Davis’ biggest hits, and it remains one of the best-remembered romantic movies of the studio era — a favorite among numerous women and some gay men. But why? Personally, I find Now, Voyager a major bore, made (barely) watchable only by a few of the supporting performances (Claude Rains, Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nominee...

There’s something about barbarian swordsmen that lends itself to parody that can often outstrip the original– think Cerebus, Groo, and Maureen Birnbaum, Barbarian Swordsperson. And now we have Skultar, a new comic from M. J. Butler (Munden’s Bar) and Eisner Award–winning artist Mark Wheatley (Ez Street, Lone Justice, Mars) appearing in Dark Horse Presents #7, on sale this December.

In an age before recorded history, in a brutal world ruled by myth, magic, and monsters, a hero rises to fight for the oppressed.

His name is Skultar.

Unfortunately, he dies shortly after our story begins . . .

In his place, another rises up to be mistaken for Skultar, to claim the riches and reputation his legend brings. Similar to Skultar in strength, and nothing else, he nevertheless must stumble his way through his adventures, aided by Skultar’s right-hand man. If Skultar’s enemies ever find out he’s an impostor,...

Noted illustrator and sometime comics artist Jeffrey Catherine Jones died yesterday of complications from emphysema.

In comics, her work appeared in Heavy Metal, the various Warren magazines, Epic Illustrated, and many, many others. Committing herself to illustration in general and expressionism in specific, she was a member of the legendary Studio along with Michael Kaluta, Barry Windsor-Smith and Bernie Wrightson. Jones’ illustrations graced a great many science fantasy novels (Michael Moorcock, Dean Koontz, Fritz Lieber, Andre Norton, and others) and magazines as well as publications such as The National Lampoon.

Her work has been reprinted in a number of albums, most recently Idw’s Jeffrey Jones: A Life In Art. This ironically titled tome was released at the beginning of this year.

Jones married Mary Louise Alexander (now Louise Simonson) in 1966 and had a daughter, Julianna, the following year. In 2001 Jeffrey had gender reassignment surgery. In recent years she suffered from numerous ailments,...

With Shadow Chaser, Alexey Pehov once again delivers the goods. His sequel to Shadow Prowler is a fantasy novel full of action, adventure, swords and sorcery, and the peerless thievery of the hero of The Chronicles of Siala series, Shadow Harold. This time, though he likes to work alone, the only way he can fulfill his promised Commission to the king and bring back the Rainbow Horn is to rely on the help of the small retinue of warriors (the Wild Hearts) and magic users that the king has assigned him. To accomplish his goal, he must use the Crimson Key and journey to the underground palaces and labyrinths of Hrad Spein, where ogres, orcs, elves, and men have buried their fallen warriors. Easier said than done, when the Key has been wrested from his control by men working for the Nameless One, who is stirring after centuries of relative peace,...

A Tale Of Two Cities (1935) Direction: Jack Conway Cast: Ronald Colman, Elizabeth Allan, Edna May Oliver, Reginald Owen, Basil Rathbone, Blanche Yurka, Donald Woods, Lucille La Verne, Henry B. Walthall, H. B. Warner, Walter Catlett, Fritz Leiber, Isabel Jewell, Tully Marshall, Mitchell Lewis, Robert Warwick Screenplay: W. P. Lipscomb and S. N. Behrman; from Charles Dickens' novel Oscar Movies Highly Recommended Jack Conway's A Tale of Two Cities Although not as widely known as other Old Hollywood spectacles, David O. Selznick's film production of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, set during the time of the French Revolution, is far, far better than most of the other period dramas made during the studio era. Starring former silent-screen heartthrob Ronald Colman; featuring respected supporting players such as Edna May Oliver, H. B. Warner, and Basil Rathbone; directed by MGM's reliable and unfairly forgotten Jack Conway, by...

“The Near Future…As It Used To Be”

What if the world of today, the early 21st Century, looked the way our predecessors thought it would, back in 1949?

What if Mars were the world imagined by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ray Bradbury and Robert Heinlein? And what if America’s most fun and famous couple flew to Mars in search of a missing brother and became embroiled in interplanetary intrigue, local wars, desert dangers and lost Martian civilizations?

This was the concept for The Lost Hieroglyph, the first of several “Brackett & Burroughs Adventures” set in an imaginary retro-future Solar System inspired by the great pulp science fiction stories and art of yore.

A lifetime’s affection for 20th-Century pop culture (of the sort now made huge by Comic-Con) eventually percolated into a sudden document in the late 1990’s. The concept lay dormant, with occasional proddings to see if it still breathed,...

New from Centipede Press, Conversations with the Weird Tales Circle is a massive, oversize, celebration of the lives of H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, Frank Belknap Long, Seabury Quinn, E. Hoffmann Price, Henry Kuttner, C.L. Moore, Lee Brown Coye, Hannes Bok, August Derleth, Edmond Hamilton, Manly Wade Wellman, Fritz Leiber, Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, Donald Wandrei, Mary Elizabeth Counselman, and many others.

Each writer has their own section in the book, complete with a custom drawing of the author by noted artist Alex McVey. 

The sections contain letters and essays by the writers, with many interviews and memoirs about the writers, often by other writers from the Circle.

With dozens of color and black & white photographs, and many of the articles never before reprinted (several coming from 1930s and 1940s fanzines that are now very difficult to find), this is an important and illuminating look at a...

Heya folks - Ken Plume here, with an interview from the vaults. I interviewed Stephen Colbert towards the middle of 2003, when it was still possible to set up an in-depth piece with Stephen that wasn’t destined for Entertainment Weekly or The New York Times.

I had followed Colbert ever since I’d seen him as a castmember of the short-lived Dana Carvey Show (bonus points if you can spot me in one of the episode openings), and I kept track of him as he moved on to Exit 57, Strangers With Candy, and then his regular spot as a correspondent on the original Craig Kilborn version of The Daily Show.

When I did this in-depth piece with Stephen, The Daily Show - under Jon Stewart - had begun to take off, and was fast becoming a strong voice in the political and journalistic landscape.

Below, you’ll find my original introduction to the piece,...

Good news Centipede Press supporters! There are limited copies of Conversations with the Weird Tales Circle now available with the majority being released in late November and early December.

This book is a triumph of design! One of our lead titles for the Fall 2009 season, Conversations with the Weird Tales Circle is a massive celebration of the lives of H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, Frank Belknap Long, Seabury Quinn, E. Hoffmann Price, Henry Kuttner, C.L. Moore, Lee Brown Coye, Hannes Bok, August Derleth, Edmond Hamilton, Manly Wade Wellman, Fritz Leiber, Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, Donald Wandrei, Mary Elizabeth Counselman, and many others.

Each writer has their own section in the book, complete with a custom drawing of the author by noted artist Alex McVey.  The sections contain letters and essays by the writers, with interviews and memoirs by other writers from the Circle. With dozens of color and black & white photographs,...

Act Of Will by A.J. Hartley (Tor, hc, 336 pp, $24.95)

Act Of Will reads like it's the offspring of an Andre Norton and Fritz Leiber collaboration. Hartley's hero talks and talks and talks his way in and out of trouble, narrating his adventures with gusto and a sly, self-deprecating charm that draws in the reader. While the plot is enjoyable and well-developed-an actor and playwright on the run from the Empire falls in with a group of adventurers investigating a mystical army wrecking havoc on the countryside-it's hero Will Hawthorne who holds the reader's attention. Initially ironic and detached, the orphaned Will is soon enveloped in a web of relationships that sets him on the path to maturity-if he can only survive the journey.

Act Cover Art: Tim Bowers/Vincent de Beauvais...

United Artists Entertainment, in collaboration with StudioCanal, has attached Billy Ray ( Breach ) to write and direct Conjure Wife . The announcement was made today by UA Chief Operating Officer Elliott Kleinberg, who stated, "This is one of those moments when the right filmmaker gets behind a great project. Everyone involved is excited to work with Billy to make this film a success." Based on the book by Fritz Leiber, Conjure Wife is a supernatural thriller concerning a man's discovery that all his recent successes in life are the result of his wife dabbling in witchcraft. Furious, he demands she cease, forgoing her protection and triggering an onslaught of evil forces intent on restoring the imbalance. President of Production Don Granger will oversee the...

Billy Ray, the writer-director of the under-rated Breach and Shattered Glass, is shifting direction for his next project.He’s signed on to write and direct Conjure Wife, an adaptation of Fritz Leiber Jr’s 1943 horror fantasy novel about a college professor who discovers that all his good fortune and success is down to the magical intervention of his wife.When he asks her to stop interfering, dark forces enter his life.Ray, however, has already overhauled the plot – now his take will see one woman attempt to take over the body of another, more desirable lady. Along with his script for Len Wiseman’s Motorcade, this signals a move into a more commercial area for the talented Ray.United Artists and StudioCanal are financing the project, with UA’s Don Granger overseeing production. No word on when filming might begin, though.

Imagine that your life is going along fine and smooth. Then you find out a lot of your perceived luck is actually the magical interference of your wife, who is a witch. You confront her, she agrees to stop ... and all hell breaks loose.

Such is the plot of Fritz Leiber, Jr.’s 1943 novel Conjure Wife, which THR reports United Artists has just signed on Billy Ray to adapt for the big screen. Ray recently directed the FBI thriller Breach but is better known as writer of such films as Suspect Zero and Hart’s War.

This will mark the fourth adaptation of Leiber’s book (the last was 1980’s Witches’ Brew) and will see some lust and body swapping injected into the proceedings to keep things lively.

- Johnny Butane

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Mongoose Publishing has outlined their 2009 releases with several new Judge Dredd games coming.

The new Dredd role playing game will use the rules from Mongoose’s Traveller game and will be accompanied by a hardcover Judge Dredd RPG Rulebook kicking off the new game in the summer. Before the year is out, campaign and sourcebooks will also be release. Judge Dredd Miniatures Game will also be released and be based on the original Gangs of Mega City One.

The new deal resulted from Rebellion, the game company that currently owns 2000 Ad and its characters, coming to Mongoose with a desirable offer. The new deal allows the publishing outfit to expand their book offerings with increased color.

According to ICv2, these are the other releases coming from the company.

Traveller

In 2009 Mongoose is expanding its science fiction RPG with a number of new core books, some of which (Scoundrel, Agent) will cover characters,...