Picked up a few old newspapers again this weekend and am going to be posting the movie ads as I get them scanned.
Let's start with these pictures from the November 23, 1963 issue of the Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph. As a historical note this was the day after the assassination of President John F Kennedy, so I am assuming that it wasn't a big weekend to go to the movies.
Wayne & O'Hara, McLintock (1963), one of the Dukes finest.
Kid's Cartoon Matinee
Debbie Reynolds in Mary, Mary (1963)
Beach Party fun, without the beach, Palm Springs Weekend (1963)
Take Her She's Mine (1963)
Garner & Remick, The Wheeler Dealers (1963)
The Three Stooges in Orbit (1963)
A family double feature
One of Jack Lemmon's best, under the Yum Yum Tree (1963)
Now I know what you’re thinking, Belgium? Who the hell makes a horror film in Belgium?
It's just so flat.
Trailer for Daughters of Darkness (1971)
While far from traditional Transylvania, Daughters of Darkness is an enjoyable deviated little horror film, beautifully shot with style and just the right amount of undead kink for a fun night at the movies. To modern audiences, the film certainly suffers from a deeply flawed dependence on traditional, though almost cartoonishly, over the top stereotypes as key story elements. Still, I suppose that in as film wrapped up in perversion as Daughters of Darkness is, good manners are an illusion and nobody is going to get away unscathed.
John Karlen & Danielle Quimet, Daughters of Darkness (1971)
It's the "Swingin' 70's" as we are introduced to Stefan (Karlen), a fashionable young American adopted into a wealthy British family and his new bride, the beautiful and exceptionally naive, even for a horror movie, Valerie (Quimet). The young lovers, enjoying their honeymoon, are meandering across Europe, making a casual route toward home. Not incidentally, a homecoming that will result in Valerie's introduction to Stefan's family, a meeting that Stefan is going to some lengths to delay. Stefan tries to figure out his options, while putting off the inevitable just a while longer, in the mean time, the two spend their days making love and seeing the sights of the continent.
Original poster, Les Levres Rouges (Daughters of Darkness)
Eventually the two reach the channel coast, where much to Stefan's relief, the weather is bad, the sea is rough and the two are forced to hold off their return to London for a few more days. Checking into a nearby luxury hotel, during their off season, empty except for the pair and a few servants. Stefan makes a show in front of Valerie, telling the porter to send a telegram to his family in Britain, while quietly slipping the man cash and a note informing the him to tell the pair that there had been no reply.
As I said, Stefan is in no rush to get home, Daughters of Darkness (1971)
Later that same evening, a well preserved antique Rolls Royce races across the countryside, speeding down the flat plain of the of farmland, hugging the coast, eventually drawing up to the hotel. It's passengers, a beautiful, mysterious Countess, glamorously dressed in 1920’s fashions with platinum blonde hair to match as well as her companion, a beautiful dark haired young girl.
The Countess and Ilona, Daughters of Darkness (1971)
When the Countess, with the horror movie give away name of Elizabeth Bathory (Seyrig) and her beautiful German assistant Ilona (Rau), approach the front desk, our friend the porter is taken aback. With wide, stunned eyes, he is certain that the Countess has visited the hotel before. He quickly realizes that has to be impossible since the woman he is thinking of had visited decades before when he was a boy.
He swears he saw her before, when he was a boy, Daughters of Darkness (1971)
Never the less, there she stands.
As young, beautiful as she was 30 years before.
As the two are taken to their rooms, the Countess and Ilona are briefly introduced to Stefan and Valerie, with the Countess taking a noticeable interest in the young pair, and especially Valerie.
Delphine Seyrig, Daughters of Darkness (1971)
The next day finds the newlyweds wandering around the town of Bruges when they come across a crowd of people watching a crime scene. A young girl has been murdered, her body found drained of blood, the fourth victim killed in the same was in as many days. While watching the police go about their work Valerie can’t help but notice that Stefan has become visibly aroused by the murder scene, and for the first time the young woman begins to wonder if there isn't more to her husband then she first suspected. But one thing is for sure, what she sees, disturbs her.
Stefan and Valerie come across a tragedy, Daughters of Darkness (1971)
Back at the hotel, the Countess sits in the parlor, biding her time knitting, surrounded by her balls of yarn, like a spider spinning a thread. Obviously distressed, Ilona approaches the Countess, telling her that she is leaving, that she cannot stand to stay and help replace herself.
Building her spiders web, Daughters of Darkness (1971)
Kindly, but firmly the Countess tells her slave that she can not leave, that she will help with whatever plans the Countess makes and that she will continue to do exactly what she is told to do. To which Ilona, while begging to be allowed to go away, still somehow without hesitation agrees.
Like a favorite pet, Daughters of Darkness (1971)
Upon their return from the village, the Countess invites Valerie and Stefan to join her for dinner that evening. It's a strange affair, where after some small talk the conversation turns to the horrors committed by the first Elizabeth Bathory. As Stefan and the Countess talk about the the tortures and death caused by the original Countess, both Stefan and the Countess become visibly aroused, while Valerie looks on horrified at the sight of the her husband and this strange woman, both in sexual ecstasy telling stories of burning and dismemberment.
Stefan and the Countess, Daughter of Darkness (1971)
Valerie eventually has enough of the conversation and flees to her room, just as a local police officer arrives to ask both Stefan and the Countess a few basic questions. After a shower, the young woman is feeling better, but her calm is shattered when she opens the balcony drapes, and is frighted at the appearance of a nude and disoriented Ilona standing at the window.
Valerie, is frightened by the sudden appearance of a nude and disoriented Ilona, Daughters of Darkness (1971)
Hearing Valerie's screams Stefan runs toward their room, but by the time he arrives Ilona has fled. Valerie is quite upset, that is until the Countess explains to Valerie and Stefan, that Ilona suffers from seizures, and sometimes loses control.
Deep down, neither Stefan or Valerie truly accepts the excuse, but still manage to do their best to be an understanding couple. With Valerie's scare forgiven, the two bid the Countess goodnight.
Stefan and Valerie, Daughters of Darkness (1971)
The following morning, Stefan finally works up the courage to call home and talks to his mother, a nightmare stereotype of the “dangerous” queen, played like a cross between Joel Grey's MC from Cabaret, and the guy they always told you to watch out for in those second grade, watch out for stranger videos.
Never the less, in as kind a way as possible Stefan’s Mother tells his son that there is no way that his new wife is going to be ready to meet the family, and that they were probably not going to have much use for her. So that the best thing Stefan could do was to come home, and introduce his wife to his mother, their friends and very possibly the latex clad creature they keep in a box in the basement.
Fons Rademakers as Mother, Daughters of Darkness (1971)
Clearly being welcomed into this family might not be what a new bride is expecting.
Angry after his phone call, and still stuck on the violent conversation from the night before, Stefan turns to his wife, and pulling off his belt begins beating and then raping her. Valerie discovers in the most horrible way possible that the man she is in love with is a fantasy, and that she is married to a monster.
Valerie learns about the true Stefan, Daughters of Darkness (1971)
The next morning, bruised, emotionally crushed, Valerie creeps out of bed leaving the Stefan sleeping, belt in hand, an angelic smile on his face. Looking out the window she sees that the Channel is smooth and clam, England awaits.
And yet the now cheerful Stefan decides to delay the pair for another day.
The next evening Valerie slips out of the hotel on a walk to consider her options, but is quickly joined by the Countess who with a combination of sympathy and humor begins to seduce the young, and as we have seen so far, not all together bright young lady.
Stefan is distracted by Ilona, Daughters of Darkness (1971)
Back up in their room, an angry Stefan is surprised by Ilona who despite her own deep and obvious disgust for the man, she gives herself to him, stratifying his every sexual need. And all to give the Countess, time to seduce Valerie, and in the end replace Ilona.
The Countess is a cunning seductress and slowly Valerie finds herself falling under the Countesses spell. Yet in the end something inside her tells her to flee and the two head back to the hotel.
Publicity still, Daughters of Darkness (1971)
At the same time, Valerie is deciding to return to the hotel, Stefan and Ilona are showering together when suddenly the woman finds the strength to assert her will, leaving Ilonar free to express her complete disgust and hatred of Stefan. Unfortunately for Ilona though, this confession simply arouses Stefan, who tries to force himself on Ilona inside of the shower.
Grabbing Stefan's straight razor Ilona strikes at Stefan cutting him, but then she trips, falling directly onto the razor almost instantly killing herself.
Ilona's fate, Daughters of Darkness (1971)
Of course as fate would have it, no sooner does Stefan have a dead girl on his floor when his wife gets home, with the Countess hot on her heels. Visiably upset but still trying to be a good wife, Valerie ignores all common sense and and self-preservation, and helps Stefan dispose of the body.
After burying Ilona in the middle of a field, the couple return to the hotel where Stefan is noticeably surprised to find that after his raping her, cheating on her and then killing the woman he was having sex with that Valerie really does not really want to be alone with him.
Convincing the upset Stefan that Valerie just needs a bit of time to calm down from whatever they had been fighting about, she sends him back to his room to clean-up.
Finding herself alone with Valerie it isn't long before the Countess has drained the girl to the point of death converting her into a replacement for Ilona.
The Countess takes Valerie under her wing, Daughter of Darkness (1971)
The next evening, a changed Valerie returns to the hotel and Stefan telling him that she is leaving him and never wants to see him ever again.
Stefan, a prize dirtbag but not born under a rock has figures out that the Countess Elizabeth Bathory is THE Countess Elizabeth Bathory, and that Valerie is under her power and decides to do something about it. Bluntly telling the Countess that Valerie is his and she can go find another slave.
Having heard enough, and having given her loyalty to the Countess, Valerie grabs a large glass bowl from a table and hits Stefan in the head with it knocking him to the ground.
Valerie and the Countess press the bowl into Stefan’s face suffocating him, struggling for several minutes until the bowl breaks and Stefan dies.
Stefan learns that sometimes woman bite back, Daughters of Darkness (1971)
The new couple hide Stefan in the same field as Ilona and flee the hotel in the Countesses Rolls Royce, racing to find cover before the sun rises. But it is a night of finality and as the sun rises, the Rolls crashes, and while Valerie survives, the Countess is thrown int the branch of a tree, piercing her heart and returning Bathory to the grave.
The fate of the Countess, Daughters of Darkness (1971)
As the film ends, Valerie,now much wiser, much more experienced, and also the new "Queen of the Dammed" walks with a handsome young couple fated to be her new slaves and protectors. She looks briefly into the camera and smiles, confident in her new power.
Valerie, the new Countess, Daughters of Darkness (1971)
Okay, I really liked Daughters of Darkness. I know I wrote about it several years ago, but after a second viewing I am even more impressed. Kumel moves with a slow, deliberate pace, but somehow the story never seems to drag. The cinematography by Eduard van der Enden is soft and lovely. And Delphine Seyrig shines in her performance as the Countess, giving us Marlene Dietrich by way of Bela Lugosi. Beautiful, with every word dripping in seductive tones, she is an almost irresistible presence.
Meanwhile both Andrea Rau and John Karlen are almost as interesting as the the Countesses unwilling servant, and a hero who is anything but.
Publicity shot of Andrea Rau and John Karlen, Daughters of Darkness (1971)
In my original review of the film I wrote that Danielle Quimet’s acting, was as wooden a performance by an actor as I have seen in a horror film this side of a film by Ed Wood, and honestly my view has not changed that much, and yet at the same time I found myself much more sympathetic to Quimet's Valerie then I did in the initial screening. Not perfect but at the same time Quimet is does a great job of showing the typical 1970's wife doing anything she can to please her man, right up to the minute when she got enlightened and moved out.
Or in this case killed him with a candy dish.
Danielle Quimet, Daughters of Darkness (1971)
John Karlen, known to all fans of good schlock as the hapless Willie Loomis from televisions Dark Shadows, and later on as the beefy all American husband to Tyne Daly on Cagney & Lacy, plays Stefan, as all confidence and a cosmopolitan on the surface while clearly a complete bastard. Stefan is bad news from the moment we meet him until the moment he goes to his end and Karlen revels in the sadism of the roll.
John Karlen, Daughters of Darkness (1971)
Karlen, known to all fans of good schlock as the hapless Willie Loomis from televisions Dark Shadows, and later on as the beefy all American husband to Tyne Daly on Cagney & Lacy, plays Stefan, as all confidence and a cosmopolitan on the surface, but is a total freak just barely underneath the surface. Watching him and Seyring get worked up together about torture and murder is not only a disturbing and odd scene it’s also wonderfully acted and great fun to watch.
Andrea Rau, Daughters of Darkness (1971)
Daughters of Darkness does deserve criticism for what are some really glaring gay stereotypes. Not only of course the classic Lesbian Vampire motif, which as a good fan of exploitation I just can’t find it in me to criticize although I should, but also Stefan’s highly stereotyped Gay “Mother” who comes across as every uptight straight mans nightmare of the evil homo.
And yet, there is a David Lynch type quality to Mother, where while the character is obviously cruel, obviously twisted, he still has love for his son and tries to give him the best advice he can.
For the 1971 crowd, scary, yet seductive, how about today?
Despite the stereotypes, the final message of Daughters of Darkness turns out to be a pretty empowering.
Valerie is strong, happy and in control of her life. It is obvious in the end, that Valerie is way better off as a Vampire then she ever would have been as Stefan's wife.
A nice selection of images from the film, set to the original soundtrack
Despite some serious flaws, Daughters of Darkness is beautifully shot, makes great use of the flat Belgium countryside, the characters are weird and over the top, the story is downright twisted.
One upon a time, in that dark and ancient era called the 1970's, we didn't have Netflix, DVD's or video tapes. If you were lucky enough to have 4 channels on the TV it was because some low wattage college station with-in a few miles of your house was playing PBS. You could go decades without seeing a movie you loved and if your favorite television show got canceled, you better hope that it went into syndication or you might never see it ever again. I can't tell you how many people I knew who would take audio cassette recorders, and record the sounds from shows, just so they would at least have that.
A selection of Castle covers
It was not a great time for entertainment, and I suspect that people born in the last 30 years, can sort of picture the reality of it, but can no more truly understand what the world was like back in those days, then I truly understand what it was like with my mom growing up with radio or my grandparents childhoods in the day before wireless. Still, in those pre-HBO days, we did have at least one thing to keep us entertained and allowed us to have a whole world of entertainment options at our fingers tips. We had home movie projectors, and we had Castle Films.
Castle's House of Frankenstein
Home projectors came normally as either as 16mm or the smaller more portable 8mm. Almost all 16mm machines came with sound, but in the case of 8mm there were some that had sound, but most were silent. The projector I own today is a 16mm machine that I bought from a school auction years ago that works like a dream and is pretty easy to find films for.
No home is complete without one
In the mid 1930's, Eugene Castle a onetime newsreel cameraman who had opened a business in the late 1920's producing training films, noticed that more and more Americans were making their own home movies and buying projectors to watch them on. Recognizing that people would want to watch more then just their own home movies, Castle began to purchase the rights to numerous old movies and cartoons for re-packaging to the home movie market.
Christmas Toy Shop, one of hundreds of cartoons released by Castle
From the late 1930's through the 1970's Castle films sold literally thousands of titles, most running about 8 minutes, the standard home movie reel size. They had licenses for animation from Warner, Paramount, Terrytoons among others. Bugs Bunny, Andy Panda, Woody Woodpecker, Superman, Popeye, Casper and dozen of other characters were put out from Castle.
Delivered weekly, The News Parade was a newsreel for the home
Along with repackaged movies and cartoons, Castle also had huge success with their weekly newsreel The News Parade. Castle's newsreel wasn't shown in theaters but instead was delivered weekly to the home of subscribers much the same way that a magazine would. The idea of watching movies of real life news events in your own home was revolutionary, and of course were a precursor of the what news coverage would be on television.
News Parade subscription form 1946
For a kid like me, more important then any newsreel was that Castle Films took classic films and edited them into 8 minute marvels. It was in these Castle film that many of us were first introduced to the Keystone Cops, Abbott and Costello, WC Fields and the Marx Brothers. Another home distributor, Blackhawk Films, specialized in silent shorts and carried Chaplin, Keaton and Laurel and Hardy, which between the two pretty much covered the gamut of early film comedy.
Castle's Here Comes the Circus
More important then the cartoons or the comedies though, for me it was the Castle editions of famous monster movies that gave me my first real taste of classic horror. It was in these shorts that I first met the Frankenstein Monster and his Bride. Saw the lord of the undead, Dracula stalk his victims in foggy London, and saw poor Larry Talbot transform into the fiendish Wolfman. In Castle films I saw the Mummy walk, the Creature in it's Black Lagoon, and the Blob destroy an entire town.
Bride of Frankenstein another classic Castle edit (this sadly is a reconstruction)
I would be well on my way to being an adult before I had the chance to see the majority of the Universal horror films in their entirety. Sure I'd seen a few on the late show here and there, but not as many as you might think. The local Creature Feature was much more interested in running more recent hammer and AIP films, and the old B&W classics just rarely were shown. When I as nine my only real knowledge of the Universal Monsters, and come to think of it, the comedy duo of Abbott and Costello was in the Castle films 9 minute cut of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.
Castle's edited Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
Speaking of the Universal Monsters, I fully expect people to disagree, and maybe it is because of my childhood exposure, but to be perfectly honest I have always enjoyed the 8 minute version of the classic Dracula, then the feature length film. The Castle cut is fast moving and to the point,where the original film, while sure a classic, is also a movie that just drags. The Castle cut on the other hand is fast paced and shows off Lugosi at his best.
Castle's condensed version of Dracula, is an edited classic
By the late 1970's and the rise of both the cable television market, and especially with the introduction of the home video player, using film to make home movies quickly faded away, and Castle's market along with it. By the end of the decade it was the end of the company. Yet for almost 40 years Castle films thrilled home viewers and gave them the ability to have whatever entertainment they wanted right at their fingertips.
WWII action was a Castle specialty
Much of their material is easily found on YouTube, and trust me lots of it is worth a look.
Peter Breck is part of the Communist menace in 1962's Red nightmare
ATTENTION, all right thinking Americans and their god fearing allies at sea and around the world. It's 1962, Francis Gary Powers is locked up in Moscow, JFK is banging Giancana's girlfriend in the White House, while nuclear missiles are heading for Cuba, the Cold War is about to go hot and all right thinking citizens know for certain that the dreaded communist conspiracy to overthrow everything good and right about our life in the United States is the sole goal of the soulless, godless, political masters, practicing their destructive, vodka soaked political lie in Moscow.
Every good American knows, every good American is vigilant and every good American is aware.
Every good American but Jerry Donovan that is.
Jack Kelly as Jerry Donovan in Red Nightmare (1962)
See Jerry might be a good guy, he was a boy scout, served in the Army, pays his taxes and tries to be a good citizen. Jerry truly believes that he loves his country, and yet, Jerry doesn't have time to go to the meetings of his local city council or to be active in his local Parent Teachers Association. Yes, Jerry's a good sort, but he's the one thing a real American just can't afford to be in 1962, Jerry Donovan is complacent.
Jerry thinks that the USA will take care of itself, and that individual citizens don't need to pay attention to the communist conspiracy taking place all around us. Luckily for Jerry, and the rest of those so-called Americans wanting to disarm, integrate, join the Peace Corp or some other suspiciously pink organizations, Jack Webb and the good people at the Department of Defense Directorate for Armed Forces Information and Education are here to set Jerry and all the other Jerry's out there straight about the communist menace in their midst.
Jack Webb is here to warn America about the Communist threat, Red Nightmare (1962)
Now 50 years later are YOU, yes, YOU, modern hipsters with your cheap twerking and socialized education are YOU willing to see the true face of communism, are YOU ready for......the Red Nightmare!!!!!
Are you ready to face the Red Nightmare???
Directed by george waGGner (don't look at me, that's how he spelled it), the director of the Universal horror classic, The Wolfman, and starring Jack Webb, Red Nightmare, features the classic Dragnet star and at the time this was shot, the president of Warner Brothers Television in his best no nonsense manner, taking us to an insidious copy of an American town deep inside of the Soviet homeland where agents train to go undercover in the United States passing themselves off as average citizens.
Moving on to any town USA, we meet Jerry Donovan, played by Bart Maverick actor, Jack Kelly, a good guy but not a man worried about the communists at his doorstep. One night in his sleep Webb shows Jerry what life would be like if his home town and the communist copy in Russia merged.
Things aren't looking good for the people of Anytown, USA. Red Nightmare (1962)
Suddenly Jerry's wife is a cold, emotionless member of the party, his daughter is heading off to work on a collective farm, his younger children have volunteered to move into state schools, his daughters all-American boyfriend (played by Ride the Wild Surf's, Peter Brown) is now a member of the ruling military council, and worst of all Jerry's young co-worker is now a total communist automaton.
The commies always try to get to the young people first. Red Nightmare (1962)
It wouldn't be so bad but the co-worker is played by Robert Conrad.
Do you hear me Robert Conrad!! Robert..Wild, Wild, West..Conrad!!!
Comrade, I dare you to knock this battery off of my shoulder!!!!
A world where Pappy Boyington is just another communist stooge is a world that none of us should want to live in!
Pappy Boyington - Commie!!!!
Eventually Jerry is taken before the local judiciary to face a show trial for his resistance to the glorious rise of communism and socialism. Jerry makes an impassioned speech defending American values, and is sentenced to be shot by his communist masters.
Andrew Duggan is honestly not that convincing as a communist, but he at least tries.
After being tortured by the head commie (Peter Breck, later of the Big Valley) Jerry is then summarily executed just like all good Americans who dare to stand up to the commie thugs.
It's all over for Jerry Donovan, Red Nightmare (1962)
Rising the next morning almost like Scrooge on Christmas Day, Jerry finds himself back in his normal non Robert Conrad being a commie world, deciding from then on to be vigilant and to pay attention to his government, his schools, and to always keep his eyes open and his powder dry, waiting for the day the communists arrive.
Jerry lucked out to wake up in the good old US of A., Red Nightmare (1962)
Shot is sharp contrast black & white, and played with that same kind of straight delivery that Webb had perfected on Dragnet, Red Nightmare is an in your face expose of the communist menace, that at the time might have seemed a bit over the top, but not so over done as to not be an effective piece of propaganda.
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