Well, dear readers, once upon a time back in 1958 and 1959 when I was ten and then eleven years old, I saw two movies at the cheapest of our three neighborhood movie theaters, the Picfair. The Lido and the Stadium were really nice theaters but the Picfair, annoyingly, could not show Cinemascope films as the had a small proscenium and a 1.85 screen that could not be opened up. So, scope there was like today’s letterboxing. Both movies I saw back then were in Cinemascope, unfortunately. And both films sent me scurrying up the aisles in terror. Interestingly, I saw them almost a year apart. The first, which is lovingly described in the Prologue of Benjamin Kritzer, was The Fly. When the nice lady pulled the hood off the nice man and revealed his fly head, well, it was a little too much for me and up the aisle I ran. I did come back a bit after that and saw it through to the end. That was on August 2, 1958. Then on August 29, 1959 I saw a motion picture entitled Horrors of the Black Museum in HypnOvista, which promised to actually put YOU in the picture. It began with a thirteen-minute thing about HypnOvista and being hypnotized. I could barely watch that because they were sticking needles through a hypnotized woman’s skin. Anyway, it was a really boring opening. Then we had the main titles of the movie with great horror music. Now, most horror movies introduce the actual horror mid-film but rarely, if ever, in the first scene. Well, I always took some comfort in that. So, in the first scene, a package is delivered to a blonde lady. Her roommate watches as she opens the mysterious package from an unknown sender. It’s a beautiful pair of binoculars. What a nice gift from perhaps an unknown admirer. She can’t wait to try them out and goes to the window and lifts them to her face. We go back to her roommate watching her and we hear a click and a horrifying scream. The woman’s hands are over her eyes with blood dripping down them. Cut to the binoculars on the floor with two sharp metal spikes sticking out, covered in vivid red blood. And – up the aisle I went. I did go back after a few minutes, and none of the other deaths were that bad, even though we didn’t actually see anything. Anyway, I mention this because yesterday I watched a new Blu and Ray of Horrors of the Black Museum and as dopey as it is, that first scene is still pretty shocking. The click seems to be missing on the soundtrack or maybe my memory is playing tricks on me. The other deaths are certainly gruesome. Michael Gough stars and hams it up wonderfully. And fetching Shirley Anne Field has a nice supporting role, just as she was about to do several movies that brought her fame – The Entertainer and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. The good news is the transfer is pretty good – garish color, as it should be, and reasonably sharp and lots better than the old DVD I had. You get the option of watching with or without the thirteen-minute HypnOvista prologue. I watched it with and the sticking the needles through the woman’s arm I still couldn’t watch. It was fun to see it again and get the full Cinemascope image. And that blaring horror score by Gerard Schurmann is still potent. Interesting side note: I’d always assumed I saw the Danny Kaye movie, The Five Pennies, at the Wiltern, and yet I could find no evidence that it played there. It did play exclusively at the Wilshire so I just assumed I remembered wrong. Well, in looking up the dates for Horrors of the Black Museum guess what I found? The Five Pennies DID play the Wiltern after all and that is exactly where I saw it. So there. And of course, that’s the movie that made me very aware of our very own Susan Gordon.
Yesterday was okay. I got eight hours of sleep, got up, took Sophie the Dog for her constitutional. I let her roam in the huge yard here and she always pees there but I also want her to do her other business there – and she just won’t. So, I walked her down the street waiting for it and she would not do it – until, that is, we got to the exact spot where she’d done it the day before. Amazing. I gave her her morning meal, which she gobbled up. I answered e-mails and had some telephonic conversations and had to deal with two count them two unpleasant texts and, as per usual, we are in need of a modern major miracle to make this holiday season one of good cheer.
After that, I did a few things on the computer, then made the rest of the fettucine, again with pink sauce, onions, and peas – no sausage this time. I ate that all up and it was very good. Then I watched the motion picture, took Sophie out to pee in the yard, which she did, then came back in and watched the movie. After that, I gave her her second meal. Around nine, I ordered in some Wor Won Ton soup from California Wok. It hit the spot and was thankfully calorie friendly. Then I just relaxed, as Sophie the Dog had claimed the entire couch as her domain.
Today, I’ll be up by ten or ten-thirty, we’ll have our walk, I’ll feed her her morning meal, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll eat something, then relax until it’s time for the brush-up rehearsal. I’ll feed her her second meal before I go. And I’ll come right home after we finish the rehearsal and take her out for a pee.
Tomorrow is more of the same and then we resume performances. So, days the same, nights attending the show and then we close with our Sunday matinee.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by ten or ten-thirty, have a walk, feed the dog her morning meal, do whatever needs doing, eat, and before I mosey on over to the theater, I’ll give her her second meal, have our brush-up rehearsal, come home, have a brief walk, and then relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What was the first horror movie you saw that really terrified you? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I’ll perhaps dream in HypnOvista.