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This April, Nyx UK is giving horror fans a reason to stay in after dark. The genre-dedicated channel is marking the birthdays of two titans of terror – Lon Chaney and Lamberto Bava – with curated tributes, while also serving up a fresh wave of cult classics, lost gems, and international oddities that promise to satisfy even the most seasoned horror viewer.

On Tuesday 1st April, Nyx pays homage to the incomparable Lon Chaney, the master of silent horror and transformative performances. Known as the “Man of a Thousand Faces,” Chaney’s legacy is explored through a special double bill. At 9pm, Tod Browning’s The Unknown (1927) sees Chaney as an armless circus performer in love with a woman terrified of touch, one of his most twisted and physically demanding roles. That’s followed at 10:15pm by The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), with Chaney delivering a deeply affecting take on the tragic figure of Quasimodo.

Jim Backus began his acting career in the 1940s, lending his voice to myriad radio dramas and animated shorts. He was a recognizable staple in Hollywood throughout the 1950s and 1960s, having appeared in films like "Rebel Without a Cause," "The Naked Hills," "Man of a Thousand Faces," "Zotz!," "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," and dozens of others. Also throughout the same period, Backus voiced the whimsically aged Mister Magoo in many, many cartoons. In addition, he headlined his own sitcom, "The Jim Backus Show," and appeared on "The Untouchables." He was capable of dramatic work, comedic work, and everything in between. By the time Backus played Thurston Howell III on Sherwood Schwartz's 1964 sitcom "Gilligan's Island," he was a massive star, deeply entrenched in Hollywood. Backus was certainly the biggest celebrity on the series and his involvement even led to some major last-minute rewrites.

"Gilligan's Island," however,...

The Hollywood biographical drama — or biopic, to use the word that always makes it sound like a dental instrument — is enjoying its mega-moment. “Oppenheimer,” Christopher Nolan’s three-hour epic about the father of the atomic bomb, proved that a story-of-a-life movie could be as big and coruscating as the cosmos; not so incidentally, it’s garnered Nolan the most ecstatic reviews of his career. Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla” has also won audiences and acclaim. In telling the story of Priscilla Presley, who met Elvis when she was 14 and spent six years married to a slowly dissolving mirage, the film takes us through the looking glass of pop-music fame. In Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro,” the lives of Leonard Bernstein and his wife, Felicia Montealegre, become a rapturous study in love, sexuality, bigotry, creativity and the mysteries of marriage. And “Ferrari,” Michael Mann’s upcoming drama about the Italian automaker, is a...

The Tom Savini episode of the Wtf Happened to This Horror Celebrity? video series (formerly known as Where in the Horror Are They Now) was Written and Narrated by Jessica Dwyer and Edited by Juan Jimenez. It was Produced by John Fallon and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

Gore. The gore the merrier or so it seemed during the 70s and 80s. And throughout many a decade gorehounds love all the red splatter a screen can handle. And one of the best to give the gore all the more is Tom Savini. A master of splatter, an icon of special effects, and a director and actor too, Savini has been the inspiration for more filmmakers and effects artists than I can count and continues to do so. He’s also never stopped making monsters and mayhem either. Tom Savini is one of modern horrors legends and I think it’s...

Bill Hader appears on my screen from Los Angeles, unshaven, a little groggy and in an uncluttered white room. Faced with this pixelated version of him, I’m instantly reminded of his role in the 2008 Judd Apatow-produced romcom Forgetting Sarah Marshall, for which he appeared almost exclusively on video call, in the days before Zoom was a thing. “It was such a novelty back then,” he says, that furrowed brow unmistakeable. “It was like, ‘Whoa, this is new.’”

Saturday Night Live’s erstwhile Man of a Thousand Faces is here on my laptop to talk about his greatest creation, Barry Berkman, a marine turned assassin turned aspiring actor in the HBO comedy-drama Barry, which Hader writes and directs as well as playing the title character. The show has won multiple Emmys; critical adulation; obsessive fans. What began as an apparent riff on the hitman-with-a-heart-of-gold trope has evolved over four...

“I want you to promise to keep this a secret, from everyone,” says Edward C. Burke, a mysterious professor played by mythic master of the macabre, Lon Chaney Sr. The line is a warning to a mourning daughter in the surviving screenplay for London After Midnight; it’s also part of the eeriest horror movies of the silent era. Unfortunately though, director Tod Browning’s 1927 classic has become one of the most inadvertently well-kept secrets of Hollywood, even as it remains one of the most influential works in horror movie history. If only we could see it.

While the film has been lost to time, the ghastly image of Chaney’s vampire in the film has lingered in the pop culture imagination, influencing everything from the earliest Hollywood Dracula film of 1931, which was originally supposed to star Chaney until his death in 1930, to seemingly this year’s recent Renfield reimagining at the same studio.

Fierce Irish rebels go head-to-head with Brit occupation forces, and James Cagney is first on the barricades. Michael Anderson’s thriller about terror violence in 1921 Dublin has suspense, beautiful cinematography in real Irish locations, and a standout cast: Don Murray, Glynis Johns, Dana Wynter, Michael Redgrave, Cyril Cusack and Sybil Thorndike — plus added-value players Richard Harris, Donal Donnelly and Niall MacGinness. Cagney’s surgeon-turned guerilla doesn’t yell “Top of the World!” but he’s as psychotic as Cody Jarrett: he wants to shoot both the leading ladies. Included is a good interview with Don Murray.

Shake Hands with the Devil

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1959 / Color B&w / 1:66 widescreen/ 111 min. / Street Date January 4, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: James Cagney, Don Murray, Dana Wynter, Glynis Johns, Michael Redgrave, Sybil Thorndike, Cyril Cusack, Marianne Benet, Robert Brown, John Cairney, Harry H. Corbett, Eileen Crowe, Allan Cuthbertson, Donal Donnelly, Richard Harris,...

Jeff Goldblum is standing in a hall of masks in San Dimas, California when he’s taken back. How could he not be? Everywhere he looks, on each shelf and behind every sales rack, there is another row of ghoulish faces staring back at him. Some have rubber fangs, others a latex eyeball, and then there’s that wolf-man get-up over there.

At the time, Goldblum’s filming the opening segment for his latest episode of The World According to Jeff Goldblum, a streaming documentary series courtesy of Nat Geo and Disney+. Yet, simultaneously, he’s also being transported back to childhood and career obsessions. Like everyone else visiting the Immortal Masks shop that day, Goldblum loves monsters. But unlike those other fine folks, he’s actually played one of the most famous monsters ever unleashed on cinemas: the grotesque Brundlefly in David Cronenberg’s 1986 version of The Fly.

So...

Kiss will mark the 45th anniversary of their 1976 LP Destroyer with a massive reissue packed unreleased demos, alternate versions and a 1976 concert.

The 4-disc + 1-Blu-ray Super Deluxe version of Destroyer 45th, due out November 19th, features the remastered album — which boasted the band’s hits “Detroit Rock City,” “Shout It Out Loud” and “Beth” — along with 15 Destroyer-era demos from Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, nine of which have never been released.

An additional disc collects the band’s single edits, outtakes and alternate mixes from the Destroyer sessions, while the...

Writer, director, producer, editor, cinematographer, and actor Larry Fessenden chats with hosts Joe Dante & Josh Olson about some of his favorite movies.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Habit (1995)

Jakob’s Wife (2021)

Phantom Thread (2017)

The Last Winter (2006)

Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957)

The Crawling Eye (1958)

The Reptile (1966)

Peeping Tom (1960)

Casablanca (1942)

Jaws (1975)

Man Of A Thousand Faces (1957)

Scarlet Street (1945)

Suspicion (1941)

Rope (1948)

The Lady Vanishes (1938)

Night Of The Living Dead (1968)

Frankenstein (1931)

The Wolf Man (1941)

Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

Dracula (1931)

Dawn of the Dead (1978)

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

Taxi Driver (1976)

Mean Streets (1973)

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)

Playtime (1973)

The Thing (1982)

The Howling (1981)

An American Werewolf In London (1981)

An American Werewolf In Paris (1997)

I Was A Teenage Werewolf (1957)

Ginger Snaps (2001)

The Terminator (1984)

The Wolfman (2010)

Van Helsing (2004)

The Mummy (2017)

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994)

The Invisible Man (1933)

The Invisible Man (2020)

Amazon Women On The Moon (1987)

Wendigo (2001)

Fargo (1996)

Raising Arizona (1987)

Seven (1995)

Man Bites Dog...

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By Tim McGlynn

Kino-Lorber has released a Blu-Ray edition of the 1959 musical comedy, Never Steal Anything Small starring James Cagney, Shirley Jones, Roger Smith and Cara Williams. If it doesn’t sound all that familiar it’s because this movie is a very odd duck. A musical without songs and dances, and a Damon Runyon type plot with characters that get a little nasty at times.

James Cagney, in his final musical performance, plays Jake MacIllaney, a crooked dockworker and steward for the local stevedore’s union in New York City. He cheats, he schemes and he occasionally embezzles funds, but he is somehow still a lovable chap who is well liked by the rank and file. He dreams of becoming the union president and hires a straight-laced lawyer, Dan Cabot (Roger Smith), to help him keep one step ahead of the law.

Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies and many more at Trailers From Hell. A show of hands: how many remember trick-or-treating when a tampered-with candy bar was the biggest fear? Should a surgical mask be worn inside or outside the scary character mask?

The 1925 version of Phantom of the Opera predates a handful of other remakes and even different editions of this film. Phantom has been remade more times than a motel bed. The takeaway from Carl Laemmle’s roaring twenties epic is: when you buy a theater and the seller tells you it’s haunted, what’s the harm in believing him?

Lon Chaney as the Phantom devised his own makeup for the gig and pretty much did whatever else he wanted. The Man of a Thousand Faces reportedly told the director to “go to hell” whenever he dared to give him any direction.

Robert Evans, the legendary head of Paramount Pictures and larger-than-life producer of “Chinatown” and “Marathon Man,” died Saturday at the age of 89. An aspiring actor, the tan and good-looking Evans claimed that actor Norma Shearer spotted him poolside and asked him to play her former husband, the legendary MGM exec Irving Thalberg, in the film “Man of a Thousand Faces.” As an actor, Evans never achieved great things.

He would make his mark as a top executive at Paramount, mentoring and clashing with up-and-coming directors such as Roman Polanski, Francis Ford Coppola and Peter Bogdanovich.

With him goes a vital link to Hollywood’s golden age and to the “young turks” who ushered in a bold new period of moviemaking in the 1970s. Bogdanovich spoke with Variety about Evans’ life and legacy. It was Evans who bought Bogdanovich’s first picture, the 1968 suspense thriller “Targets,” and later collaborated with him...

Tony Sokol Oct 28, 2019

The kid who stayed in pictures dies after a long life worthy of a movie of its own. Robert Evans brought film into a new era.

Robert Evans, actor-turned-producer-turned-Paramount Pictures president, who made films like Chinatown, Marathon Man, Love Story, Rosemary's Baby, The Godfather and The Godfather Part II possible, died Saturday, October 26, according to Variety. He was 89. No cause of death was announced.

Evans' movies were not intended to be blockbusters. He didn't even care if they were commercial. He wanted his films to be original. The Godfather got made because Evans thought Hollywood presented a false depiction of the mob. He had a friend get the rights to Mario Puzo's as-yet-incomplete novel and persuaded Francis Ford Coppola to direct the film. His life was as original as any of the films he was responsible for. Evans' third wife Ali MacGraw was stolen from...

Robert Evans, the producer behind such classics as Chinatown and Urban Cowboy, has died at the age of 89. No details regarding Evans' passing have been revealed at this time. The news of the Hollywood icon's death was confirmed by his ex-wife Ali MacGraw in a statement. Here's what she had to say.

"Our son, Joshua, and I will miss Bob tremendously and we are so very proud of his enormous contribution to the film Industry. He will be remembered as a giant."

Born in June 1930 in New York as Robert J. Shapera, Robert Evans started life in the fashion buisness, partnering with his older brother to open the Evan-Picone. While on a trip to Los Angeles to open a new location, Evans was spotted by actress Norma Shearer, which led to him starring alongside James Cagney and Lon Chaney in 1957's Man of a Thousand Faces. Evans then began acting...

The capricious, imperious film figure, who has died aged 89, was a mentor and enabler to directors such as Francis Ford Coppola

Celebrated Hollywood producer of Chinatown dies aged 89

Robert Evans became a legend in Hollywood: the larger-than-larger-than-life studio chief and flamboyant impresario, married seven times and a hypnotically charming raconteur and seducer by vocation. This was a producer with the soul of a 1930s mogul and somehow also the soul of a difficult and demanding movie director.

Like the great studio bosses before the second world war golden age, he started in the rag trade, and after a brief acting stint (notably playing the legendary mogul Irving Thalberg in Man of a Thousand Faces) he became a producer. As head of production, he turned Paramount’s reputation around with a string of shrewd projects, which his Midas touch turned into critical and box-office gold.

Robert Evans, the legendary Hollywood producer of “Chinatown” and many more and the head of Paramount Pictures between 1967 and 1974, has died. He was 89.

An individual from Evans’ camp confirmed the news to TheWrap. He died on Saturday.

While at Paramount, Evans led a string of box office hits and critically acclaimed smashes that helped turn a struggling studio around, putting out classics such as the first two “The Godfather” films, “Harold and Maude,” “Serpico,” “Chinatown,” “Rosemary’s Baby,” “The Great Gatsby,” “True Grit,” “The Conversation” among many more.

Also Read: Paul Barrere, Little Feat Singer and Guitarist, Dies at 71

In 1974, Evans stepped down from the head of the studio to serve as an independent producer, including a hot streak that included “Marathon Man,” “Black Sunday,” “Players” and “Urban Cowboy.” He later produced the “Chinatown” sequel, “The Two Jakes,” “Silver” and “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.”

Born in New York City,...

Now that we can read the real story of the great silent actor and makeup magician Lon Chaney, the inaccuracies are fairly glaring in this well-received biopic about his career heights and difficult personal life. But it remains a compelling James Cagney movie, allowing the actor to try on different acting styles (and even a dancing style). The dramatic conflicts may be invented, but they’re compelling just the same. The movie works even as it represents Chaney’s original fantastic makeup creations with a series of ever-worsening rubber masks. Excellent supporting performances from Dorothy Malone, Jane Greer and Celia Lovsky. This one carries a good Tim Lucas commentary as well.

Man of a Thousand Faces

Blu-ray

Arrow Video

1957 / B&w / 2:35 anamorphic widescreen / 122 min. / Street Date October 29, 2019 / Available from Arrow Video / 34.95

Starring: James Cagney, Dorothy Malone, Jane Greer, Marjorie Rambeau, Jim Backus, Robert Evans, Celia Lovsky, Jeanne Cagney, Jack Albertson.

Man Of A Thousand Faces will be available on Blu-ray October 29th From Arrow Video

One screen legend pays homage to another in Man of a Thousand Faces, an enthralling biopic which sees Oscar-winning tough guy James Cagney give a multifaceted portrayal of silent cinema legend Lon Chaney.

In early horror classics such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of The Opera, Lon Chaney captivated audiences with his vivid personifications of grotesque and afflicted characters. His extraordinary make-up skills, and miraculous ability to completely transform into grisly yet sympathetic and tragic monsters, garnered him international acclaim and the famous moniker of this film s title.

Yet, despite his talent and success, Chaney led a life plagued by hardship and heartache. This insightful film-portrait traces the trajectory of the actor s career: from impoverished vaudeville clown to Hollywood stardom, whilst also capturing the drama that surrounded his private life.

Deadline has confirmed that Paramount won’t be re-upping its deal with Robert Evans Productions, which has been in place since 1974 after Evans stepped down from running the studio.

Evans began at Paramount in 1967, at the age of 36, the youngest studio production boss at the time. During his tenure he revitalized 1970s cinema with such blockbusters as The Godfather, Love Story and as a producer of such classics as Chinatown and Rosemary’s Baby.

While Evans had a staff that includes development exec Jay Sikura, Exec. Director of Development Melissa Prophet and executive assistant Michael Alfred, he has been working from his Woodland estate in Beverly Hills due to poor health. The last feature that Evans, 89, produced, was the 2003 Matthew McConaughey-Kate Hudson romantic comedy How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days which grossed more than $177 million at the global box office.

“Bob Evans has been an iconic...

Actress Dorothy Malone, who starred in the primetime soap opera Peyton Place, died Friday in her hometown of Dallas. She was age 93.

Malone died in an assisted living center from natural causes days before her 94th birthday, said her daughter, Mimi Vanderstraaten.

After 11 years of mostly roles as loving sweethearts and wives, the brunette actress decided she needed to gamble on her career instead of playing it safe. She fired her agent, hired a publicist, dyed her hair blonde and sought a new image.

"I came up with a conviction that most of the winners in this business became stars overnight by playing shady dames with sex appeal," she recalled in 1967. She welcomed the offer for Written on the Wind, in which she played an alcoholic nymphomaniac who tries to steal Rock Hudson from his wife, Lauren Bacall.

"And I've been unfaithful or drunk or oversexed almost ever since— on the screen,...

Dorothy Malone, the matriarch of TV’s Peyton Place who received an Oscar for playing the sex-crazed sister of playboy Robert Stack in the 1956 melodrama Written on the Wind, has died. She was 93.

The big-eyed, dark-haired beauty, who flourished in Hollywood soon after she went platinum blonde in the mid-1950s, died Friday morning in Dallas, her manager, Burt Shapiro, told The Hollywood Reporter. She had been ill for the past few years.

Malone also starred in the biopic Man of a Thousand Faces (1957), playing opposite James Cagney as Lon Chaney’s emotionally charred first wife, and was the moody and tempestuous ...

Tony Curtis grew up idolizing the suave and funny Cary Grant, emulated his romantic moves as an actor and then performed a brilliant impersonation of Grant for Billy Wilder. The next step had to be co-starring with the great man himself. Blake Edwards’ amiable, relaxed submarine movie allows Grant to play with ladies’ under-things, while Curtis wrestles with a pig.

Operation Petticoat

Blu-ray

Olive Signature Edition

1959 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 120 min. / Street Date July 1, 2014 / available through the Olive Films website / 39.95

Starring: Cary Grant, Tony Curtis, Joan O’Brien, Dina Merrill, Gene Evans, Dick Sargent, Virginia Gregg, Gavin MacLeod, Madlyn Rhue, Marion Ross, Arthur O’Connell.

Cinematography: Russell Harlan

Original Music: David Rose

Written by Paul King, Joseph Stone, Stanley Shapiro, Maurice Richlin

Produced by Robert Arthur

Directed by Blake Edwards

The latest in Olive Films’ Signature Selection special editions is Operation Petticoat, a light comedy war movie noted for teaming Cary Grant with Tony Curtis.

Crime novel The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding. While her husband is away during World War II, housewife Lucia Holley – the sort of “Everywoman” who looks great in a two-piece bathing suit – does whatever it takes to protect the feeling of “normality” in her bourgeois, suburban household. The Blank Wall is a classic depiction of an attempted cover-up being much more serious than the actual crime. Sound bites: Remembering the classic crime novel 'The Blank Wall' and its two movie adaptations – 'The Reckless Moment' & 'The Deep End' Crime novel writer Elisabeth Sanxay Holding (1889–1955) is not a name familiar to many, and yet Raymond Chandler described her as “the top suspense writer of them all. She doesn't pour it on and make you feel irritated. Her characters are wonderful; and she has a sort of inner calm which I find very attractive.” Holding has been identified as “The Godmother of Noir” and, more...

It was so cool to see Sylvester Stallone make his big McU debut in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. It's already been confirmed by Marvel that he is playing Stakar a.k.a. Starhawk in the film. During a press conference I attended last week, Stallone talked about joining the film explaining:

"Well, you know… early on in my career I just always became fascinated with mythology and Joseph Campbell and you know, Man of a Thousand Faces and so on and so forth. So when I started doing Rambo, whatever, there was an evolution that takes place and each generation has to define itself and find its own heroes and find its own mythology and this is the new, this is this generation, and maybe even the next generation’s mythology and when Kevin invited me onboard I said, 'This is interesting because I haven’t gone here,...

on this day in history as it relates to showbiz...

Lon Chaney as The Phantom of the Opera1776 Pioneering mathematician Sophie Germain born. She's mentioned in the movie Proof but where's her biopic? There are so many 'hidden figures' out there to tell stories about

1883 Silent film star and "Man of a Thousand Faces" Lon Chaney is born. Becomes legendary doing monstrous film roles with early horror makeup: clowns, phantoms, hunchbacks, you name it...

Attention classic movie freaks – Set your DVR for this Monday!!!!

Tod Browning (1880-1962) was a pioneering director who helped establish the horror film genre. Born in Louisville Kentucky, Browning ran away to join the circus at an early age which influenced his later career in Hollywood and echoes of those years can be found in many of his films. Though best known as the director of the first sound version of Dracula starring Bela Lugosi in 1931, Browning made his mark on cinema in the silent era with his extraordinary 10-film collaboration with actor Lon Chaney, the ‘Man of a Thousand Faces’. Despite the success of Dracula, and the boost it gave his career, Browning’s chief interest continued to lie not in films dealing with the supernatural but in films that dealt with the grotesque and strange, earning him the reputation as “the Edgar Allan Poe of the cinema”. Browning...

“Gooble-gobble, gooble-gobble, we accept her, we accept her, one of us, one of us.”

Cinema St. Louis presents a Tribute to Tod Browning Friday November 13th at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. The program includes a 35mm screening of Browning’s 1927 silent shocker The Unknown with live music by The Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra followed by a screening of Browning’s 1932 masterpiece Freaks. The event begins at 7:30pm and will be hosted by We Are Movie Geeks own Tom Stockman. Ticket information can be found Here

Tod Browning (1880-1962) was a pioneering director who helped establish the horror film genre. Born in Louisville Kentucky, Browning ran away to join the circus at an early age which influenced his later career in Hollywood and echoes of those years can be found in many of his films. Though...

“Gooble-gobble, gooble-gobble, we accept her, we accept her, one of us, one of us.”

Cinema St. Louis presents a Tribute to Tod Browning Friday November 13th at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. The program includes a 35mm screening of Browning’s 1927 silent shocker The Unknown with live music by The Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra followed by a screening of Browning’s 1932 masterpiece Freaks. The event begins at 7pm and will be hosted by We Are Movie Geeks own Tom Stockman

Tod Browning (1880-1962) was a pioneering director who helped establish the horror film genre. Born in Louisville Kentucky, Browning ran away to join the circus at an early age which influenced his later career in Hollywood and echoes of those years can be found in many of his films. Though best known as the director of the...

He has voiced a peanut in a TV ad and stars as Fear in Inside Out, as well as hosting Saturday Night Live. But, he says, he thought he’d blown it when he auditioned to co-star in Trainwreck with Amy Schumer

Bill Hader, Saturday Night Live’s erstwhile Man of a Thousand Faces, sits on a couch in a Los Angeles hotel suite wearing the one face we’re least familiar with: his own.

Said face is, to borrow a phrase Ricky Gervais used to describe Steve Carell, “nearly handsome”, meaning nice enough to gaze on in repose, but in motion possessed of all the rolling contours that make for comedy gold. Add a Belushi-esque repertoire of eyebrow moves, a leering smile and a voice that can switch from nasal whine to purring baritone in a heartbeat, and you have the perfect launchpad for the dozens of impersonations and...

Producer Robert Evans, circa 1970s, in the documentary The Kid Stays in the Picture.

Robert Evans: The Kid Is Alright

By

Alex Simon

I interviewed legendary Hollywood producer Robert Evans in 2002 for Venice Magazine, in conjunction with the release of the documentary "The Kid Stays in the Picture," adapted from his iconic autobiography and audiobook. Our chat took place at Woodland, Evans' storied estate in Beverly Hills, in his equally famous screening room, which mysteriously burned down a couple years later. Evans was still physically frail, having recently survived a series of strokes, but his mind, his wit and his charm were sharp as ever, with near total recall for people, places and stories. Many, many stories. Here are a few of them.

It’s a widely-held belief that the years 1967-76 represent the “golden age” of American cinema. Just look at a few of these titles: Rosemary’s Baby,...

Dr Martens

Nowadays your face is everything. An actor like Lon Chaney, “The Man Of A Thousand Faces”, was indispensable in the early days of Hollywood, making his way as a consistently credible actor who could nonetheless utterly transform himself using prosthetics, make-up and performance so as to render himself totally unrecognisable, being absorbed completely into any role he was cast in.

That’s not so much of a worry in the modern entertainment industry. In fact the opposite is true, with face rather than name recognition being the driving force behind getting people to go see films, to buy albums, to tune into TV shows, to shell out for perfume, cars, clothes, you name it. Selfies are the primary form of communication for a reason. It’s all about the face.

At a time when likenesses are at such a premium, the entertainment industry is naturally inclined to make...

The ever busy actor Bill Oberst Jr. (Criminal Minds, Children of Sorrow, Abraham Lincoln vs Zombies) recently took away a "Lon Chaney Award for Outstanding Achievement in Independent Horror Films" at the FANtastic Horror Film Festival. Read all about it in the details below.

From The Press Release

Actor Bill Oberst Jr. has received the "Lon Chaney Award for Outstanding Achievement in Independent Horror Films" at the FANtastic Horror Film Festival (Fhff) in San Diego. Ron Chaney, the great-grandson of Lon Chaney and the grandson of Lon Chaney Jr., was on hand along with Lon Chaney’s great-great-granddaughters Jaclynn & Jennifer to present Oberst with this first-ever award.

Festival organizers kept the award a secret to surprise Oberst, who has often cited Lon Chaney as a major influence and expressed a desire to play The Man Of A Thousand Faces on stage or screen. The actor was nearly speechless as Ron Chaney...

Actor Bill Oberst Jr. has received the Lon Chaney Award for Outstanding Achievement in Independent Horror Films, at the FANtastic Horror Film Festival (Fhff) in San Diego. Ron Chaney, the great-grandson of Lon Chaney and the grandson of Lon Chaney Jr., was on hand along with Lon Chaney’s great-great-granddaughters Jaclynn and Jennifer to present Oberst with this first-ever award.

Festival organizers kept the award a secret to surprise Oberst, who has often cited Lon Chaney as a major influence and expressed a desire to play The Man Of A Thousand Faces on stage or screen. The actor was nearly speechless as Ron Chaney called him forward at the Fhff Awards Banquet. “My inner 14 year-old horror kid is in overdrive right now,” he said. “Without the Chaney family there would be no horror genre.”

Ron Chaney, speaking for the family, thanked the Fhff crowd for helping to keep the Chaney...

Horror legend Robert Englund talks about his new film The Last Showing, what was wrong with the Nightmare On Elm St remake, and more...

Sitting with Robert Englund deep in the bowels of a gilded London hotel, it becomes obvious just what a great storyteller he is. As he reminisces about his early acting career in such films as Five Easy Pieces or Hustle, or goes even further back to his childhood brushes with the horror genre, he talks in a soothing, sonorous voice that is a million miles away from his signature role of Freddy Krueger.

Then again, Englund doesn't look or sound like the character in his latest movie, either. In The Last Showing, a psychological horror thriller written and directed by the UK's Phil Hawkins, Englund plays Stuart, a once proud projectionist who, thanks to the advent of digital cinema, finds himself busted down to the lowly...

Dorothy Malone, the matriarch of TV’s Peyton Place who received an Oscar for playing the sex-crazed sister of playboy Robert Stack in the 1956 melodrama Written on the Wind, has died. She was 92.

The big-eyed, dark-haired beauty, who flourished in Hollywood soon after she went platinum blonde in the mid-1950s, died Friday morning in Dallas, her manager, Burt Shapiro, told The Hollywood Reporter. She had been ill for the past few years.

Malone also starred in the biopic Man of a Thousand Faces (1957), playing opposite James Cagney as Lon Chaney’s emotionally charred first wife, and was the moody...

Eleanor Parker dead at 91: ‘The Sound of Music’ actress, three-time Best Actress Oscar nominee (photo: Eleanor Parker ca. 1945) Eleanor Parker, one of the best and most beautiful actresses of the studio era, a three-time Best Actress Academy Award nominee, and one of the stars of the 1965 blockbuster and Best Picture Oscar winner The Sound of Music, died today, December 9, 2013, of complications from pneumonia at a medical facility near her home in the Southern Californian desert town of Palm Springs. Eleanor Parker was 91. “I’m primarily a character actress,” Parker told the Toronto Star in 1988. “I’ve portrayed so many diverse individuals on the screen that my own personality never emerged.” At one point, wildly imaginative publicists called her The Woman of a Thousand Faces — an absurd label, when you think of Man of a Thousand Faces Lon Chaney. Eleanor Parker never altered her appearance the way Chaney did — her...

Infinite Anticipation

Here at the Vienna International Film Festival there are no multiplexes devoted to the festival. Every cinema is a single screen—all quite beautiful and some, like the Urania, Metro, Künstlerhaus, and Austrian Film Museum, very special indeed—and, scattered at a bit of a distance from one another, they trace a lopsided kind of ellipsis, a loop of cinema if you plan your itinerary right.

Above: Out 1, noli me tangere.

I came anticipating this particular suggestion of cinematic infinity, not just because of my memories of the last two years of repeatedly treading this touring path around the constrained city center of Vienna, but because of the promise of a much desired (by Jonathan Rosenbaum since 1996, and thereafter by an untold multitude of tantalized cinephiles) festival pairing of Jacques Rivette and Suzanne Schiffman's improvised serial intended for television, Out 1, noli me tangere (1971), and Louis Feuillade's...

Lon Chaney didn't speak during early childhood, as his parents were deaf and mute, and he communicated with them via sign language. When silent movies came along, he was a natural. And at the end of his life, stricken with throat cancer, he lost his voice and again relied on pantomime to make himself understood. He came from silence and went back to silence.

Chaney was a unique kind of movie star, in that his success rested more on variety than reliability: if his audiences had any expectations going into a Chaney film, surely they must have been expectations of surprise, perhaps of an encounter with the unfamiliar and bizarre.

Outside the Law (1920) was Chaney's second film for director Tod Browning, whose concerns seemed to merge with his own in a particularly conducive way: separately and apart, both men pursued stories of humiliation, disfigurement, and revenge, featuring bizarre, displaced menageries and elaborate and uncomfortable disguises.

When you were a kid, you might have thought makeup was for girls (or your grown-up self). You were full of $#!*. Makeup artists are one of the most under-sung components of movie making, though this certainly isn’t a misconception shared by genre fans, who have known for a long time how important the man or woman making the monsters are.

The makeup artists and practical special effects technicians are, in many ways, the driving force of movie magic. It wasn’t Just color coming to Oz that captured our imagination in Wizard Of Oz, it was how vivid that color blossomed in the Wicked Witch’s face, applied by the legendary Jack Dawn. The acting, atmosphere, and set designs for Alien were all top-notch, but it was H.R. Giger’s monstrous xenomorph and creature creations that drove it all home and made it stick with us in our nightmares.

Even casual horror fans are familiar with the silent Universal classics The Phantom of the Opera and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which starred the legendary “Man of a Thousand Faces” Lon Chaney, Sr. in his two most iconic screen roles. The box-office success of those two films led the studio in 1928 to adapt The Man Who Laughs, a story by Hunchback author Victor Hugo, into one of their first sound productions, with music and sound effects (but no recorded dialog). While Chaney did not return for this one (he was under contract to MGM by that time), the lead role was taken on by another screen legend, Conrad Veidt – best remembered by horror fans as the creepy sleepwalker Cesare in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Just as in Hunchback, the title character here is not technically a “monster,” but a sympathetic figure who happens to be horribly disfigured... but like the grotesque Quasimodo,...

Everybody's favorite movie decade: Which ones are the best movies released in the 20th century's second decade? Best Film (Pictured above) Broken Blossoms: Barthelmess and Gish star as ill-fated lovers in D.W. Griffith’s romantic melodrama featuring interethnic love. Check These Out (Pictured below) Cabiria: is considered one of the major landmarks in motion picture history, having inspired the scope and visual grandeur of D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance. Also of note, Pastrone's epic of ancient Rome introduced Maciste, a bulky hero who would be featured in countless movies in the ensuing decades. Best Actor (Pictured below) In the tragic The Italian, George Beban plays an Italian immigrant recently arrived in the United States (Click below for film review). Unfortunately, his American dream quickly becomes a horrendous nightmare of poverty and despair. Best Actress (Pictured below) The movies' super-vamp Theda Bara in A Fool There Was: A little...

In celebration of the October 2nd Blu-ray release of the Universal Classic Monsters: The Essential Collection from Universal Studios Home Entertainment, veteran horror historian Scott Essman has prepared a truly monstrous trip back through time for you classic horror fans!

It’s a quiet dusty morning in the summer of 1916 and all but a small eastern region of the San Fernando Valley is largely undeveloped, to say nothing of unpopulated. For the past year, inside of an unassuming front gate just over the hill from Los Angeles proper, two men are trying to forge their path in the fledgling motion picture business: Lon Chaney and Jack Pierce. Nascent actors Chaney, 33, and Pierce, 27, were completely unknown, but each had an angle; they could both work magic out of a simple makeup case, fully transforming their faces and even parts of their bodies to put themselves into a better position to be cast in a role.

By Tom Lisanti

I admit it. I am a Troy Donahue fan. There I said it. Not surprising since I love and have been writing about Sixties starlets for over ten years. If there ever was a male version of a starlet, it was Troy. I purchased the DVD box set Warner Bros. Romance Classics Collection featuring four of his early Sixties movies and recently viewed My Blood Runs Cold (1964) from Warner Bros Archive as a DVD-on-Demand. The pairing of Troy Donahue as a loon and Joey Heatherton as the blonde he desires in this suspense film didn’t burn up the silver screens across the country and left most critics cold, but the coupling of America’s favorite bland blonde boy with the Ann-Margret wannabe made for bad cinema you just got to love.

By 1964 Troy Donahue had reached super stardom and was one of the most popular young actors at the time,...

By MoreHorror.com

The Boston International Film Festival (Biff) will be screening Slumber Party Slaughter, on Saturday April 14 at 5:30pm. AMC/Loews Boston Common, 75 Tremont St., Boston, Ma 021084.

Actors Tom Sizemore (Black Hawk Down, Pearl Harbor, Heat, and Hawaii Five-0), Robert Carradine (Revenge of the Nerds), Michael Bowen (Cabin Fever2), and Jarrod Bunch (Don King: Only in America, Good Time Max) will be attending the Boston International Film Festival for the Slumber Party Slaughter screening.

Check out the trailer below the details.

From The Press Release:

Horror feature directed by Rebekah Chaney stars Tom Sizemore, Ryan O’Neal, Robert Carradine, with Tyler Jacob Moore and Stephanie Romanov

Attending the festival screening, Sat. 4/14 @ 5:30pm, Rebekah Chaney (director), Tom Sizemore (Black Hawk Down, Saving Private Ryan, Hawaii 5-0), Robert Carradine (Revenge of the Nerds), Michael Bowen (Cabin Fever 2), Jarrod Bunch (Don King: Only in America).

Showing support for the film,...

Movie screenings are fun. Movie screenings with special guests are even better. And when Tom Sizemore is on the guest list, you know it's going to be a blast! He headlines a panel of celebrities scheduled to attend Boston International Film Festival's screening of Slumber Party Slaughter.

The screening will take on Saturday, April 14, read on for all the info. Also in attendance will be other stars of Slumber Party Slaughter, Robert Carradine, Michael Bowen, Jarrod Bunch and the film's writer/director Rebekah Chaney. Take a look at the trailer below, and if you're in the Boston area this weekend, go see Sizemore and the rest of the Slumber Party Slaughter crew.

From the Press Release

The Boston International Film Festival (Biff) will be screening Slumber Party Slaughter, on Saturday April 14 at 5:30pm atAMC/Loews Boston Common, 75 Tremont St., Boston, Ma. Attending the festival screening will be the film's director,...

The Campus Events Commission will be screening Slumber Party Slaughter on Thursday, May 3rd at 8:00 p.m. at the Ackerman Grand Ballroom at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

The screening will be preceded by a Q&A session featuring the director, talents, and special guests at 7:30 p.m.

Director Rebekah Chaney and star Tom Sizemore will be in attendance for sure.

Showing support for the film, “I had a great time working on Slumber Party Slaughter. I think horror is a fun genre, especially with Chaney’s perspective and how she as the writer and director has built in so many seeds for the sequel. Be sure to come prepared to have a great time,” says Sizemore.

Comments director Rebekah Chaney, who is the grand-niece of Lon Chaney, "Growing up with the Lon Chaney horror legacy, 'the Man of a Thousand Faces,' I think I was destined to write horror.

The great movie pioneer D.W. Griffiths once said “we do not want now and we shall never want the human voice with our films.” Shame he failed to realise that film-making is a technical medium that will always develop. In the last 100 years we have had the introduction of colour, trick photography, 3D and CGI, among other numerous innovations such as CinemaScope - and even Smellovision. But none of these compare to the most revolutionary of cinematic changes: sound.

The silent era of the twenties holds little more than curiosity-value for many modern film fans. Other than a few notable exceptions such as Nosferatu (1922) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925), it’s become a long-forgotten part of cinema history. But back then we had the Brad Pitts and Angelina Jolies of their day! Big stars and talented actors who sadly failed to survive the test of time.

The coming of sound was controversial,...

Horror legend Tom Savini directs and co-stars in Wet Dreams for this horror anthology, in theaters at Midnight, January 27th

Down a seedy city street, a young woman is obsessed with what appears to be a long abandoned theatre. One night, she sees the front door slightly ajar and impulsively decides to sneak inside. But there in the vast, eerie auditorium, a show unlike any other unfolds before her eyes. Its host is an odd marionette-like man who will introduce her to six tales of the bizarre: A couple traveling in a remote part of the French Pyrenees crosses paths with a lustful witch; A paranoid lover faces the wrath of a partner who has been pushed to her limit; The Freudian dreams of an unfaithful husband blur the lines between fantasy and reality; The horrors of the real world are interpreted through the mind of a child; A woman...

We just received word that The Man of a Thousand Faces: The Art of Bill Nelson has hit print and is only available at Creature Features. Here's the lowdown for you lovers of classic horror out there:

In 1970, internationally renowned artist Nelson created "The Lon Chaney Portfolio," an exquisitely rendered series of black and white illustrations devoted to Hollywood’s beloved “Man of a Thousand Faces.” The collection showcased portraits from many of Chaney’s most memorable films, including The Phantom of the Opera, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, London After Midnight, The Penalty and Laugh, Clown, Laugh.

Read more...