Well, dear readers, our handy-dandy book signing is coming up this Saturday, and I do hope some of you will be able to attend. I shall be reading from the book if I can only figure out what in tarnation to read. The fact is, I have never been to one of these reading/signings – do they read whole chapters? Do they just pick a few paragraphs from various parts of books? If you have any ideas or any thoughts, post them today (if you’re making suggestions about which parts to read, then make sure you don’t include spoilers). All help gratefully appreciated.
Last night I watched a motion picture entitled Night of the Demon on DVD. I first saw this motion picture in the seventies and really liked it then and really like it now. It was made in 1957 and released here in the USofA in 1958 under the lurid title, Curse of the Demon, and it was shorn of about 13 minutes. Well, this brand spanking new DVD has both versions of the film. Isn’t that exciting? Isn’t that just too too? Yes, Virginia, you can watch the long version or the short version or you can even watch the short version or the long version. The long version, for example, is longer than the short version and vice versa and also versa vice. I chose to watch the long version and it was longer than the short version which is the version I watched in the seventies. The seventies seemed shorter than the eighties, so there you are. It’s quite an atmospheric little film, shot in gorgeous black and white by Ted Scaife. In fact, I’d go as far as to say the photography is stunning and a lesson in how to photograph these types of film. It helps that the transfer is great. Dana Andrews stars and he’s fine. The female lead is the beautiful Peggy Cummins, who starred in one of the great film noirs of all-time, Gun Crazy. If you’ve only seen her in that, it will amaze you to see what she’s really like. This movie also has a great cast of supporting players, especially Niall MacGinnis as Dr. Karswell. It’s directed by the vastly underrated Jacques Tourneur, who did The Cat People for Val Lewton. There’s no gore (although much to Mr. Tourneur’s chagrin, the studio did insert a literal demon into the film – it’s a pretty good one, though). This film has one moment that never fails to make me jump out of my seat – even though I know it’s coming. And the joke is nothing happens – a hand enters a shot, but it’s so unexpected and the music stings it so well, that I just get taken every time. I prefer this longer version – the cuts seem to be little bits from here and there, and then one major three or four minute sequence is gone in its entirety (and it’s not really needed, save for the atmosphere and some information that gets skipped over without it). In any case, if you like atmospheric chillers, you should check it out.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? Should I do two versions of these here notes? The long version and the short version? Maybe the long version could be for overseas and the short version for the USofA. Maybe not.
If you missed the weekend notes, do check them out – there are many various and sundried facts imparted which you will be without should you not check them out. You must never be without your various and sundried imparted facts or otherwise you will not be one of the with it, one of the coolest, one of the greatest, one of the ginchiest, one of the in crowd, one of the grooviest; in other words, you will not be the bomb. I’m jiggy with that if you are.
Well, perhaps we should all click on the Unseemly Button below, whilst asking this simple question: Where has Mr. Mark Bakalor disappeared to? He, the bitch-slapper of haineshisway.com has been MIA for quite some time. So have other regulars around here, but I suppose that is to be expected during the summertime, when the livin’ is easy.
We have had only two count them two attempts to answer this week’s trivia contest question. I guess I’m getting to tough, although frankly I thought this week’s question was not all that difficult. Remember, dear readers, you must have moxie, you must gird your loins, you must do the research and find the answers. Otherwise, there will be no sparkling prizes for you. Speaking of sparkling prizes, the two or three that I’m behind on will be going out this week, so never fear.
As promised, I nosed around the Internet and checked out a couple of these Internet dating services. One was called JDate and that one is for Jewish people who wish to date other Jewish people. Do not go to JDate if you are Catholic or Mormon or Buddhist – you will have no luck at all. They have various categories, for example women seeking men, men seeking women, women seeking women, men seeking men, but I found no category for women seeking doughnuts or men seeking ancient catacombs. I feel this is a failing on the part of these Internet dating services. I checked out some of the profiles and I found out that these people on JDate are Jewish. You can search for your particular needs – for example, you can put an age range in, you can put certain weights in, certain heights, hair colors, etc. You can put in whether you’re searching for an Orthodox Jew or a Conservative Jew or a Reform Jew. Isn’t that interesting? Isn’t that just too too, or in this case, Jew Jew? The other Internet dating service I checked out was called date.com. It was similar except you didn’t only have to be a Jew. You could be anything, and I do mean anything. They had the same categories but the search criteria is much more limited. I checked out some of the profiles but it seems like every one I looked at the person liked to wind surf. Well, I draw the line right there.
I do have a friend who belongs to JDate, and he has gone out on many many many (that is three manys which is maybe two too manys) JDates. He hasn’t found “the one” yet, but still, he gets to meet some nice people, or so he says.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must scurry about like a mouse in a maze, I must get in my automobile and drive east, west, north and south, I must read and write and ‘rithmatic, I must think on weighty subjects and I must weight on thinky subjects. That is the long version of what I must do – the short version is that I must amscray. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite classic chiller films and plays? Not slash and dice fests either – I mean the classic chillers and thrillers. I’ll start – Psycho, of course, Alien, the original The Cat People, Wait Until Dark, Deathtrap (stage version only), Black Sunday, Kill, Baby, Kill (the latter two both directed by Mario Bava), Eyes Without a Face (one of my all-time favorites), The Haunting (original version), Horror of Dracula and many more. Your turn (and do talk about other things if you are not interested in the topic of discussion).