8mm Forum: Monsters we known & loved/Hollywood & the Stars

This is topic Monsters we known & loved/Hollywood & the Stars in forum 8mm Print Reviews at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on May 17, 2016, 12:08 PM:

From the Hollywood & the stars series from January 1964 come this superb little 400ft b/w sound super 8 reel full of great nostalgic horror. Its original length was 24 minutes so i am assuming this super 8 edition may be slightly abridged. I'm sure most, if not, all of you will know the content of this reel but it is basically a beginning to end,(at the early 60s), history with some comical commentry from Joseph Cotton, starting with a pre title sequence explaining how when sound was introduced to films, horror movies began to take on a new life with the sounds of the night, the bugs and the winds as well as the monsters themselves creating a whole new kind of horror film. Then it is a fast moving series of sequences all the way to to the end of the reel of some of the best known horror monsters ever to hit the old pre 60s screens, including at he start, Dracula,(Bela Lugusi), the beast with five fingers,(Peter Lorre), Frankenstein,with some great behind scenes stills,(Boris Karloff) and many others including Lon Chaney, John Barrymore & James Arness from the Thing, its also worth mentioning the comical chess game between Boris Karloff and Bela Lugusi, they refer to one another as there monster characters Frankenstein & Dracula. There is also a fair amount of some classic Ray Harryhausen movies including King Kong, 20 million miles to Earth, Earth Vs the flying saucers and it came from beneath the sea. There is also some really tacky incest monsters that certainly make you smile, The Giant claw,(described by Joseph Cotten as a giant parakeet), Robot monster and of course Plan 9 from outer space. We then move onto the horror comedy with Vincent Price and Peter Lorre The Raven, and finally to those awful early teenage/rock/monster movies which appeared in the 60s, the title of this film, here you go,-The incredibly strange creatures who stopped living and became mixed up zombies!!! And what can i say about that
The quality of this reel given how old some of this material was is actually very good indeed with a good sharp image, sound is very good if lacking a little bass but this is pre 1965 so its not going to be Dolby stereo.
A great reel for any horror/monster fan.

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