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When the moon is high and the shadows stretch long, there’s nothing quite like a monster mash to get the blood curdling in the best possible way. Yep, we’re talking about those rare cinematic feasts where Dracula toasts with Frankenstein, and the Wolfman crashes the party, only to find out the Mummy’s been hogging the dip. Welcome to the ultimate guide to horror’s most iconic gatherings – a list that promises more monster movies than a Halloween bash at Castle Dracula.

Before we unleash the monsters, a quick plug! Dive deeper into classic and modern monster lore with our “Graveyard Smash” limited podcast series on Patreon. Our latest haunt? Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Don’t miss it! Support us and get exclusive access at Nightmare on Film Street on Patreon.

20Th Century Studios 10. Transylvania 6-5000 (1985)

Directed by Rudy De Luca, this offbeat comedy takes a jab...

Daken, Skaar, and Noh-Varr found redemption after their involvement with the Dark Avengers, transitioning from villains to true heroes within the Marvel Universe. Sentry and Gorgon were initially manipulated into joining the team but later returned to their heroic aspirations, making up for their involvement with the Dark Avengers. John Walker, Venom, Victoria Hand, Charles Barton, and even Norman Osborn himself have all taken steps towards redemption, showing that not all members of the Dark Avengers were irredeemable villains.

The Dark Avengers are the team of ‘heroes’ who operated under Norman Osborn during Marvel Comics Dark Reign era following Secret Invasion. The team mostly consisted of villains who were suited up to look like/operate as familiar superheroes, with the other slots filled by legitimate heroes who were tricked by Osborn into pushing his villainous agenda, despite wanting to actually do good in the world.

In essence, the Dark Avengers...

In the glory days of Universal Pictures, the studio had two big things going for it at the box office: the Universal Monsters, and a comedy duo known as Abbott and Costello. Bud Abbott and Lou Costello met on the burlesque circuit — the story goes that one day, Costello's regular comedy partner got sick, allowing Abbott to step in and begin a long, prosperous partnership. Abbott, tall and thin, was the straight man; a surly, frowning bully who frequently had it up to here with his sidekick. Costello, short and stout, was the fool; the childlike clown who was prone to falling down and acting like a buffoon, all to Abbott's annoyance. The act worked like gangbusters, with the duo moving on to radio before landing a movie contract in 1940. By 1942, they were considered to be the top box office stars in the country.

As for the Universal Monsters, they...

Preserved by the 'United States Library of Congress' as "culturally, historically and aesthetically significant", this Halloween take a look at the classic horror comedy feature "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" (1948), directed by Charles Barton, with a haunting score by Frank Skinner, starring the comedy team of  Bud Abbott and Lou Costello: 

"...freight handlers 'Wilbur Grey' and 'Chick Young' have their lives turned upside down...

"...when the supposed remains of the 'Frankenstein' monster and 'Dracula' arrive from Europe to be used in 'McDougal's House of Horrors'..."

Click the images to enlarge... ...

Abbott & Costello perform at full strength in this very good, very silly jungle safari comedy. It’s definitely for kids and nostalgic fans — with equal parts slapstick, cornball repetitive vaudeville gags, and Lou Costello’s weirdly endearing infantile schtick. An impressively beautiful restoration has pulled it back from the pit of Public Domain ugliness. Plus ClassicFlix & the 3-D Archive appoint this 2-D movie with a tall stack of creative, relevant extras.

Africa Screams

Blu-ray

ClassicFlix

1949 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 79 min. / Special Limited Edition / Street Date June 30, 2020 /

Starring: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Clyde Beatty, Frank Buck, Max Baer, Buddy Baer, Hillary Brooke, Shemp Howard, Joe Besser, Burt Wenland, Charles Gemora, Arthur Hecht, Bill Walker, Martin Wilkins.

Cinematography: Charles Van Enger

Film Editor: Frank Gross

Original Music: Walter Schumann

Written by Earl Baldwin

Produced by Edward Nassour

Directed by Charles Barton

I can’t say that I was one of the zillion...

It’s a classic from the Golden Year of 1939, directed in fine style by Wild Bill Wellman and well cast with Paramount stars Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, and Robert Preston, and with Brian Donlevy as one of the movies’ most hissable villains. The popular story has been remade and spoofed innumerable times, yet this remains the indelible best version. A commentary with William Wellman Jr. and Frank Thompson points out many things we didn’t notice before, including where some excised scenes belong, and what originally happened in them.

Beau Geste

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1939 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 112 min. / Street Date April 7, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy, Susan Hayward, J. Carrol Naish, Albert Dekker, Broderick Crawford, Charles Barton, James Stephenson, Heather Thatcher, George P. Huntley, Donald O’Connor, Billy Cook, Martin Spellman, Ann Gillis, David Holt, Henry Brandon, Nestor Paiva, Francis McDonald.

Abbott & Costello – The Complete

Universal Pictures Collection

Blu ray

Shout! Factory

1940-1955/1:33-1:85

Starring Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff

Directed by Arthur Lubin, Erle C. Kenton, Charles Barton

Two footloose Jersey boys with no particular place to go, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello finally found themselves – literally and figuratively – on the burlesque stage. Their act, equal parts smart talk and ancient slapstick, was honed alongside curvy chorus girls and tassel-twirlers but it took a lady of a decidedly different stature to make them superstars. On March 24, 1938, Kate Smith, “The First Lady of Radio”, invited them to perform “Who’s On First”, a routine delivered with such hairpin curve precision it left listeners breathless. That appearance fast-tracked the duo to their own radio series and a contract with Universal Pictures.

They made their big screen debut in 1940’s One Night in the Tropics, a low budget...

Even lesser Abbott & Costello movies are still comedy gravy to the avid fans of the fast-talking duo. Their first film deal away from Universal yields a so-so production graced with a string of their patented old-time comedy routines. And the transfer beats anything we’ve yet seen.

The Noose Hangs High

Blu-ray

ClassicFlix

1948 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 77 min. / Street Date August 15, 2017 / available through ClassicFlix / 24.99

Starring: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Joseph Calleia, Leon Errol, Cathy Downs, Mike Mazurki, Fritz Feld, Murray Leonard, Ellen Corby, Russell Hicks, James Flavin, Minerva Urecal, Fred Kelsey.

Cinematography: Charles Van Enger

Film Editor: Harry Reynolds

Assistant Director: Howard W. Koch

Original Music: Walter Schumann

Written by John Grant, Howard Harris from an earlier screenplay by Charles Grayson, Arthur T. Horman story by Julian Blaustein, Daniel Taradash, Bernard Feins

Produced and Directed by Charles Barton

A few famous movie comedy teams prospered with good will and parted with hugs,...

A happy discovery! This is a major late- silent-era gem on the order of Von Sternberg’s Docks of New York — a special treat that will please fans of director William Wellman — he revisited parts of it in a later talkie. It’s also a key movie in our education/adoration of the maverick actress Louise Brooks, the erotic sensation too hot and too independent for Hollywood.

Beggars of Life

Blu-ray

Kino Classics

1928 / B&W / 1:33 Silent Aperture / 81 min. / Street Date August 22, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Wallace Beery, Richard Arlen, Louise Brooks, Blue Washington, Roscoe Karns, Robert Perry, Guinn ‘Bog Boy’ Williams.

Cinematography: Henry Gerrard

Film Editor: Alyson Shaffer

Assistant Director: Charles Barton

Music: The Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra

Written by Jim Tully and Benjamin Glazer from a novel by Jim Tully

Produced by Jesse L. Lasky, Adolph Zukor, William A. Wellman

Directed by William A. Wellman

Director...

The 2016 blu ray release of the Frankenstein and Wolf Man Legacy Collections was a moment of celebration for movie and monster lovers everywhere, bringing together all the golden age appearances of Frankenstein’s misbegotten creation and Larry Talbot’s hairy alter-ego. Universal Studios treated those dusty creature features to luminous restorations; from Bride of Frankenstein to She Wolf of London, these essential artifacts never looked less than impeccable and, at times, even ravishing. Colin Clive’s frenzied declaration, “It’s Alive!”, never felt more appropriate.

Now Universal has turned their attention to their other legendary franchise players, Dracula, the sharp-dressed but undead ladies’ man and Im-ho-tep, the cursed Egyptian priest who loved not wisely but too well.

Dracula: Complete Legacy Collection

Blu-ray

Universal Studios Home Entertainment

1931, ’36, ’43, ’44, ’45, ’48 / 449 min. / B&W / 1:33 / Street Date May 16, 2017

Starring: Actors: Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney Jr. , Boris Karloff, Bud Abbott, Lou Costello

Cinematography: Karl Freund,...

Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe - The Nice Guys Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Lethal Weapon and Lethal Weapon 2 writer and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Iron Man 3 director, Shane Black, sees Farewell, My Lovely, directed by Dick Richards, starring Robert Mitchum and Charlotte Rampling, Arthur Penn's Night Moves with Gene Hackman and Alan J. Pakula's Klute, starring Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland, as inspiration for his Nice Guys, Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe dressed by Kym Barrett. Crowe finds Stanley Kubrick's The Killing "still works today" and remarks how Quentin Tarantino uses its "fractured timeline" so well. Gosling grew up with Arthur Lubin's Hold That Ghost and Charles Barton's Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein and deems Fred Dekker's The Monster Squad, co-written by Black, worth quoting.

Ryan Gosling: "I grew up on Abbott and Costello movies." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Producer Joel Silver,...

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Need a good laugh, but only got an hour and a half? Might we recommend this little lot...

I’m of the firm belief that films work most effectively when their runtime is 90 minutes or less. It forces an economy of story and dialogue which propels the film into its best self. No bloated middle, extended ending, or wasted stories here. This goes double for comedies. They should never outstay their welcome. But they seem to be getting longer, as we recently pointed out here.

So to refresh your movie comedy palette, here are 25 films that are 90 minutes or under. I’ve tried to avoid the more obvious ones, and shine a light on those comedies which might have gone a bit unappreciated over the years, but are well worth a hour and a half of your time. This lean runtime isn’t a guarantee of greatness of course,...

Susan Hayward. Susan Hayward movies: TCM Star of the Month Fiery redhead Susan Hayward it Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Month in Sept. 2015. The five-time Best Actress Oscar nominee – like Ida Lupino, a would-be Bette Davis that only sporadically landed roles to match the verve of her thespian prowess – was initially a minor Warner Bros. contract player who went on to become a Paramount second lead in the early '40s, a Universal leading lady in the late '40s, and a 20th Century Fox star in the early '50s. TCM will be presenting only three Susan Hayward premieres, all from her Fox era. Unfortunately, her Paramount and Universal work – e.g., Among the Living, Sis Hopkins, And Now Tomorrow, The Saxon Charm – which remains mostly unavailable (in quality prints), will remain unavailable this month. Highlights of the evening include: Adam Had Four Sons (1941), a sentimental but surprisingly...

The St. Louis Globe-Democrat is a monthly newspaper run by Steve DeBellis, a well know St. Louis historian, and it’s the largest one-man newspaper in the world. The concept of The Globe is that there is an old historic headline, then all the articles in that issue are written as though it’s the year that the headline is from. It’s an unusual concept but the paper is now in its 25th successful year! Steve and I collaborated recently on an all-Vincent Price issue of The Globe in 2011 and he has asked me to write a regular monthly movie-related column. This month’s St. Louis Globe-Democrat is written as if it’s 1949, the year Joe Besser starred with Abbott and Costello in the comedy Africa Speaks. We are publishing several Joe Besser articles in this issue to help promote the upcoming Joe Besser Film Festival which will...

Our daily January countdown continues with part 19 out of 30, in our list of the 300 Greatest Films Ever Made. These are numbers 120-111.

120) Schindler’S List (1993) Steven Spielberg USA

119) The Woman In The Dunes (1964) Hiroshi Teshigahara Japan

118) Strangers On A Train (1951) Alfred Hitchcock USA

117) Stray Dog (1949) Akira Kurasawa Japan

116) Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) Charles Barton USA

115) All The President’S Men (1976) Alan Pakula USA

114) Close Encounters of the 3Rd Kind (1977) Steven Spielberg USA

113) The Bicycle Thief (1947) Victorio Desica Italy

112) Ikiru (1952) Akira Kurasawa Japan

111) La Dolce Vita (1959) Federico Fellini Italy

Numbers 110-101 coming next.

film cultureClassicslist300...

Katharine Hepburn, Rossano Brazzi in Oscar nominee (but not DGA nominee) David Lean's Summertime DGA Awards vs. Academy Awards 1948-1952: Odd Men Out George Cukor, John Huston, Vincente Minnelli 1953 DGA (12) Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, Above and Beyond Walter Lang, Call Me Madam Daniel Mann, Come Back, Little Sheba Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Julius Caesar Henry Koster, The Robe Jean Negulesco, Titanic George Sidney, Young Bess DGA/AMPAS George Stevens, Shane Charles Walters, Lili Billy Wilder, Stalag 17 William Wyler, Roman Holiday Fred Zinnemann, From Here to Eternity   1954 DGA (16) Edward Dmytryk, The Caine Mutiny Alfred Hitchcock, Dial M for Murder Robert Wise, Executive Suite Anthony Mann, The Glenn Miller Story Samuel Fuller, Hell and High Water Henry King, King of Khyber Rifles Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, Knock on Wood Don Siegel, Riot in Cell Block 11 Stanley Donen, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers George Cukor, A Star Is Born Jean Negulesco,...

Director: Charles Barton.

Writers: Val Burton, Walter DeLeon and Bradford Ropes.

Cast: Marjorie Reynolds, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello

Abbott and Costello is a comedic team that brought about a resurrection for Universal Studios. Their films from 1948 to 1953 brought back the monsters from the Golden Age of Hollywood legend and it made for some very good laughs. For the most part, these films were a modest success. The most widely recognized is Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, but the list does not end there.

However, the least recognized of these films is a product that does not involve them meeting anyone other than themselves in a twist of a Buddhist tradition. Bad karma finally caught up on Cuthbert Greenway (Bud Abbott), and he has to right what his ancestor did wrong.

Perhaps that's one of the ironies of why The Time of Their Lives is still enduring today. The script...

Director: Emily Hagins Writer: Emily Hagins Starring; Elaine Hurt, Patrick Delgado, Santiago Dietche, Lauren Lee, Lauren Vunderink, Tony Vespe, Devin Bonnee Every decade we have a new cinematic approach to the vampire genre (a majority of which involve some sort of adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula). There are classics (Robert G. Vignola’s The Vampire, F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu, Universal’s and Hammer Films’ Dracula franchises, etc.) as well as the reverential revivals of “serious” vampire films that were released in the 1980s (Tony Scott’s The Hunger, Joel Schumacher’s The Lost Boys, Kathryn Bigelow’s Near Dark, etc.) and 1990s (Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker's Dracula, Guillermo del Toro’s Cronos, Michael Almereyda’s Nadja, Neil Jordan’s Interview with the Vampire, etc.). In one way or another, cinema history leads us to the more recent past, with films such as Tomas Alfredson’s Let the Right One In...

In a continuation of our coverage of The Wolfman (see our interview with star Benicio Del Toro here), Dread Central sat down with co-star Anthony Hopkins this past Saturday in Beverly Hills, CA, for the film’s press junket and chatted with him regarding his role in the flick (which opens this Friday, February 12th, via Universal Pictures/Relativity Media).

Direct, witty, and precise, the prolific British actor chatted about his The Wolfman character of Sir John Talbot and his on-screen relationship with his estranged son, the tortured Lawrence Talbot (portrayed in the remake by Del Toro).

“Sir John is eccentric and ice cold,” said the 72-year-old Hopkins, whose sureness of character seemed to trip up a few journalists in attendance. “There’s a harsh, brutal business of being a father and a son. Most men know about that – the pain of that. The ‘wound’ they call it.”

“In this case,...