haines his way

04/18/2002:
"THE BROKEN RECORD"

Well, dear readers, here we are on Thursday, now known around these parts as Answer Day. We broke another record yesterday with forty-four posts (well, forty-two, if you get rid of the two double posts). Isn't that exciting? Isn't that just too too? Soon we will be the most popular site on all the internet and people will come from far and wide and also wide and far and we will all eat cheese slices and ham chunks together and we shall dance the Hora and also the Pachanga and we will have pithy conversation over shrimp bits on toast and we will be a happy lot. Speaking of broken records, I sound like one, don't I? Has anyone noticed that I say the same things over and over again? Has anyone noticed that I say the same things over and over again?
Last night I watched the new DVD of Fatal Attraction, a film of Mr. Adrian Lyne. There's an interesting new documentary on the DVD and lots of extras, unusual for Paramount. The film has actually gotten better with time, because new thrillers have gotten so much worse. Fatal Attraction has now been copied so many times in so many ways by so many inferior people that the original is looking something like a minor classic. I don't love it, but it's all done very well and it's my favorite of Mr. Lyne's films (I normally don't care for his films at all). Glenn Close does an excellent job creating a woman you love to hate, and Michael Douglas and Anne Archer are both terrific. Now, hopefully, Paramount will reach into their vaults and do a DVD of Li'l Abner. The bad-looking VHS will simply not do. I do have a Technicolor 16mm print of it, but it's a pain-in-the-butt cheeks to run.
What am I, Ebert and Roeper all of a sudden? What am I, a broken record all of a sudden? What can I do? I find repetition amusing. Besides, we must plant our Haines/Kimmelisms in the world and watch them grow like a fungus. We must nurture and water our Haines/Kimmelisms because it would be unseemly not to.
Well, well, well (that is three wells), we had a lot of questions yesterday, therefore it follows there will be a lot of answers today. But first we must all click on that Unseemly Button below because Mr. Mark Bakalor has returned from the land of the Packing Jews and he is ready, willing and able (not necessarily in that order) to bitch-slap us for the smallest infraction. Just what is an infraction. A popular fraction? What is an outfraction? A fraction nobody wants to be around? Let us ponder that, whilst clicking away.
So, time for the answers to your good questions.
S. Woody White asks if I have a good recipe for Short Ribs. His ever-loving der Brucer was looking for one and came up short. Unfortunately I do not have a good or bad recipe for Short or Long Ribs. I have never cooked a rib. Actually, I don't know if I've even eaten Short Ribs. I've eaten barbecued ribs, certainly, but I don't know that I know from a Short Rib. Wasn't that a fine answer? S. Woody also asks if I could be an exhibit in any of the Smithsonian museums along the Mall, of what would you be an exhibit. I don't know if there's a recorded sound museum, but if there was I'd be in it as an example of a broken record.
William F. Orr asks what my favorite Amanda McBroom songs is, and what Amanda McBroom is really like. First off, Amanda is one of the nicest people ever. I've worked with her several times and it's always been a treat. Of my favorite McBroom originals, most are from the show I recorded, Heartbeats. I really like Old Habits Die Hard, Ship in a Bottle, Dance, Putting Things Away, and Hitchhiker. Funnily, my least favorite is her most famous, The Rose. She's a great singer, great actress and a really good writer.
Laura asks have I ever done a commercial? Why, yes, Virginia, I believe I have done a commercial, in fact, I think I've done close to a hundred of the damn things, back in days of yore when I was but an actor. I've done commercials for McDonald's, Mazda, Nissan, United Airlines, Charmin (my first, in which I played Young Mr. Whipple!), the Dairy Association (I had to drink glass after glass of yucky milk), RC Cola, Wells Fargo Bank, and heaven knows what else. My last commercial was done in 1993 in the midst of recording Michelle Nicastro's first album, Toonful. It was for the Energizer, and was a nice way to go out, acting with Rip Torn and directed by Frank Oz. It was the third in that kookie series of Energizer Bunny commercials.
Lulu asks when was my daughter born and is she an only child. That reminds me of a book I was quite enamored of when I was but a wee twig of a sprig of a tad of a youth: Jack Douglas's My Brother Was an Only Child. My daughter, Jennifer, was born in the year known as 1970 and she is indeed an only child, and a pretty great one at that.
Arnold M. Brockman asks if I had the backing and full artistic control for one recording date at this moment in time, what would I record and who would be in the project? I don't know if there's an answer to that question, since I've done pretty much everthing I've wanted to and had full artistic control over all 130 albums. But, I always wanted to record Smile (I've recorded several songs from it), so I suppose I'll say that. A cast of unknowns as the girls, and maybe Alice Ripley and Brian d'Arcy James in the Bruce Dern and Barbara Felton roles.
Craig Brockman asks if I could give us something I love for each letter of the alphabet. Well, let's see:
A - Artichokes with B- Butter. C - Children. D - Donuts. E - Excellence. F - Food. G - Gardens.
H - Happiness. I - Income. J - Jennifer. K - Kissing. L - Loyalty. M - Music/Massage. N - Nostrils. O - Order. P - Peace (of mind). Q - Quality. R - Roses/Rain. S - Standards. T - Theater. U - U-No Bars. V - Variety (not the magazine). W - Wonder (sense of). X - XM. Y - Yes (the answer).
Z - Zoos. That was hard. Craig asked if I could write a verse in any style or parody as if I were writing a musical of A.I. Not off the top of my head, but I shall give it some thought.
Sandra asks if Meltz and Ernest (whose story continues on the 'morrow - Fridays are now going to be Meltz and Ernest day) ever wrote a song entitled Don't Eat My Toes? I don't see it listed in any of the references, although I do see one called My Shoes Have a Tongue and So Do I.
Tom of Oz asks if I have any information to impart on the writings of Kander and Ebb and are they writing something new that will reach Broadway, and did I like the score to Steel Pier. I liked some of the score to Steel Pier, especially the song Second Chance, which I've recorded twice, once with Michelle Nicastro and once with Brent Barrett. One would have thought given what I was reading on the internet, that The Visit would have come right to Broadway, but one suspects that the show has real problems. Finally, I don't know if I have any information to impart, other than that I really like their work tremendously.
Bob Roberts asks do I always do everything twice? Not everything. I only ate Indian food once, and I only went on a roller coaster once.
Michael Shayne asks who would I cast in Follies, either living or dead. Well, living or dead, I'd just have all the original cast, because they were simply perfection.
Freedunit asks if Dame Edna, Guy Haines, Barry Humphries and me have ever had a get together. We have, but we were all in seperate locations. It was grand fun, though, and we all ate cheese slices and ham chunks and danced the Hora and the Louie-Louie.
Phil Crosby asks what, in my opinion, is the best recording of the worst musical? And conversely, what is the worst recording of the best musical, and I can't count the OBC of Follies. First off, I wouldn't count the OBC of Follies because I love it, truncated or not. So, the best recording (I presume you mean production-wise and sound-wise) of the worst musical: Of course, it depends on what your definition of "worst" is - but two albums I'm very fond of from unsuccessful shows are Wildcat and Minnie's Boys. Worst recording of best musical - I'll give a controversial choice here and say The Most Happy Fella - an album, by the way, that I play all the time and which I love, love, love (that is three loves). However, as grateful as I am (and I am grateful indeed) to have it complete, it just isn't well recorded (I'm sure they had to do it in a hurry) - the band sounds shrill and frequently out-of-tune, and the show deserves a totally superb recording technically. That said, that recording wouldn't have Robert Weede and Art Lund, therefore I'm happy with what I've got.
Ron Pulliam has several questions: He asks, given all the ham chunks on this here site, is this site not kosher? This site is kosher except for the fact we eat ham chunks and to add insult to injury (no mean feat) we eat our ham chunks with cheese slices (dairy). But we do dance the Hora, so we get points for that. Ron also feels we need to develop an emotion for bitch-slapping, otherwise how will anyone know if they've been bitch-slapped? Believe me, when Mr. Mark Bakalor bitch-slaps you will know it. He is Queen of the Bitch-Slappers and we are his mere minions. I, for one, enjoy being a mere minion. I feel being a mere minion is something to aspire to, although maybe I'm confusing being a mere minion with being a mere onion. Ron also asks who it was that Bernadette Peters replaced in Mack and Mabel? I have no idea - I did see it when it premiered here in Los Angeles and Miss Peters was in it, so she must have replaced someone at the beginning of rehearsals. I do know that Patti Lupone replaced Carol Demas (I think it was Carol Demas) in The Baker's Wife. Continuing, Ron also asks if anyone knew that at the time of La Cage Aux Folles that that would be the last Jerry Herman musical ever. Well, he has done two since then, although not for Broadway. TV's Mrs. Santa Claus and that Vegas thing that never happened, Miss Spectacular. Whether he'll do another Broadway show remains to be seen - he always says he's looking for the right project. Ron asks if any of the following have been announced for CD: Mr. Herman's Parade - of course, it's been announced and I do believe it's coming soon from Decca. Kean - Kean was on a long list of Columbia titles that I put in for once upon a time. Since DRG has ended up with several titles on my list, it'll be interesting to see what ends up where. And finally, why hasn't Andrea McArdle done more in the way of CDs and Broadway? Hard to know. As someone already pointed out, she has done two (I think) CDs, and she was in State Fair on Broadway. I just don't have any real insight into her or her work ethic - maybe she doesn't want to work more than she does, or maybe there just aren't the right vehicles for her. I think a good vehicle for her would be a brand spanking new Thunderbird.
Kerry asks why we have to have an Unseemly Button, let alone click on it? Well, this was something that Mr. Mark Bakalor decreed. He said having the entire notes on the splash page would be bad and unwieldy and people would hate us and we wouldn't be popular and people would blow rasberries at us. He originally had something else to click on but I soon changed it to our now familiar Unseemly Button.
I feel we all need an unseemly button in our lives, don't you?
Mattso asks how exactly does one do the pudding dance? What steps are involved? Well, of course it depends on which pudding dance one is doing. The Rice Pudding. The Chocolate Pudding. The Bread Pudding (especially fun), The Butterscotch Pudding and so forth and so on and also so on and so forth. For example, The Rice Pudding is quite simple: The left foot goes out, the left foot goes to the side, then the right foot goes back and the right foot goes to the side. Then both feet go in different directions for no reason and then they meet back from whence they came. Then the left foot steps on the right foot and then the right foot steps on the left foot. Then there is a complete turn and a hop, skip and a jump. That's it. Shall we all get up now and try it? Mattso also asks if I've worked with Miss Bernadette Peters and if so, what was she like? I worked with her briefly when we recorded the cast album of Ruthless! She came in and did a bonus track and was easy to work with and delightful.
Lolita asks what I think of Madeline Kahn and did I ever meet or have dealings with her. I once saw her in a market on Lexington Avenue, but that's it. I thought she was terrifically talented and wonderful in Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein and What's Up, Doc? Lolita also asks what kind of shoes I wear? I wear sneakers, right now Nike Airliners. And yes, Virginia, they have a tongue. Finally, Lolita asks how many musicals I've written and what were they called? Well, if you count unproduced as well as produced, they are: Atticus (based on To Kill a Mockingbird), Shut Up, He Explained (a Ring Lardner revue with songs by moi), Start at the Top, Feast, A Comedy of Errors (based on the Shakespeare play), Stages, Together Again, The First Nudie Musical and Pals. And, of course, the one I am currently working on, which shall remain nameless for the time being.
JMK asks if I've heard Mr. Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years. I haven't, but I'm looking forward to it.
Whew. Sorry this is going up so late, but it takes a long time to answer everything. Today's topic of discussion: Not to sound like a broken record, but what are your favorite horror films. I'll start: Horror of Dracula, Horrors of the Black Museum (bad, but fun), Psycho, Carrie, The Shining, Dead of Night, Eyes Without a Face, Alien (sci-fi and horror both), The Bride of Frankenstein, Peeping Tom (I think I'd catagorize it as horror), Homicidal, Mario Bava's Black Sunday and Kill, Baby, Kill, and many many more. Your turn.

Replies: 28 Unseemly Comments

BK did not know the answer to my question about "Mack and Mabel"!!
Whatever will I do?
I know, I'll ask Phil Crosby, who said he knows the answer, but declined to give BK a shot at it...and to avoid the pleasure of being bitch-slapped.
Please, Phil, please...won't you tell me who and why (if you know).
Yes, I for one have noticed the repetition in BK's musings -- I pay very close attention and the repetition is thunderously apparent. BK's enormity of repetition is part of his charm.
Horror!
"Carrie."
"Mommie, Dearest" is up there, too. One look at Faye as Joan and my heart is in my throat, my pulse is racing wildly and all my internal organs palpitate wildly. This woman will NOT bitch-slap...this women will throttle you with a wire clothes hanger!
"Salem's Lot" is pretty cool for a TV fright fest! The monster is very ugly and James Mason gives me chills, too.
"Alien" and "Aliens" -- one very cool, laid back and terrifying; the other hyper-intense, edge-of-your seat terrifying.
Posted by Ron Pulliam @ 04/18/2002 11:07 AM PST

Favorite Horror Movie: Bride of Frankenstein and Creature of the Black Lagoon, cheesy though it is. I also have a soft spot for the Incredible Shrinking Man, though that may be more sci-fi than horror.
To solve the Bernadette Peters/Mack & Mabel mystery, she replaced Marcia Rodd late during rehearsals. I saw the show in its DC tryout and as fabulous as so much of it was, including the two leads, Peters and Preston were so far apart in age it was creepy, like she was dating her grandfather. But listening to the album you can't see that and it is sheer heaven.
Posted by Phil Crosby @ 04/18/2002 11:11 AM PST

I do love these question and answer sessions. I am now doing the chocolate pudding dance hither and yonder as well as yonder and hither.
Favorite horror movies:
Reanimator
Evil Dead
Dead Alive (pre- Lord of the Rings Peter Jackson)
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (not gory but oh-so-frightening)
Posted by Mattso @ 04/18/2002 11:15 AM PST

Interesting...when I was a wee lass, I had a pretend big sister named Jennifer. But she would have been older than your Jennifer, as I imagined her to be a teenager in the late '70s.
Favorite horror films:
Dracula -- the Spanish version that Universal made concurrently with the English language version directed by Tod Browning. I love Bela Lugosi, but the Spanish language Dracula is simply a much, much better film.
Both films that Karl Freund directed before becoming DP for I Love Lucy:
The Mummy ('32) and
Mad Love (with Peter Lorre, not Drew Barrymore, you big sillies!)
Psycho
Carnival of Souls
Carrie
Them! and The Thing (from another world) are in a class by themselves, of course.
Posted by Lulu @ 04/18/2002 11:59 AM PST

"The Other," visually and aurally sumptious, but unable to pack the wallop of surprise the original novel had in its denouement. Still, Diana Muldaur and Uta Hagen are incredible, and Jerry Goldsmith's score is simply gorgeous.
Posted by JMK @ 04/18/2002 12:00 PM PST

In my haste to get these here notes up, I forgot many of my favorite 50s horrors - Incredible Shrinking Man, Them, The Amazing Colossal Man, Attack of the Puppet People (with our very own Susan Gordon), The Thing (from Another World). I'm also quite fond of The Other, which JMK mentioned.
Posted by bk @ 04/18/2002 12:25 PM PST

I wonder if the space-time continuum would have been ripped, torn, or Rip Torn if Amy Camus, Dame Edna, Guy Haines, Barry Humphries, Yma Sumac, and you were to have assembled ensemble at a get-together or other to-do.
Also, I continue to wonder about revivals of La Cage aux Folles; Hello, Dolly!; and Mame; and I wonder why I wonder why.
Posted by freedunit @ 04/18/2002 01:15 PM PST

Horror film are not my choice usually but I remember "The Innocents" (Deborah Kerr) as being scary and I did like "The Shining". I remember "Scared Stiff" being both scary and funny.
Posted by Tom from OZ @ 04/18/2002 02:54 PM PST

HORROR!!! Not my usual fare but three films do come to mind ...
WAIT UNTIL DARK (1967) with Audrey Hepburn, Richard Crenna and Alan Arkin. I jump a mile high every time Arkin makes that flying leap across the room.
THEATRE OF BLOOD (1973) with Vincent Price, Diana Rigg and Robert Morley. The ultimate actor's revenge on his critics. Funny too!
WHO IS KILLING THE CHEFS OF EUROPE? (1978) with Robert Morley, Jacqueline Bisset and George Segal. In the same vein as above, only this is how to do in all those chefs and their fatty dishes!
Posted by Donna - Cabaret West @ 04/18/2002 04:32 PM PST

Re: Bernadette Peters and Mabel. Someone actually sneakingly answered it yesterday by asking it as a question.
Question:
Penny Fuller was annnounced, but Marcia Rodd was hired and then fired. She was replaced by Kelly Garrett and then Ms. Garrett was fired and then rehired and then fired again. She was finally replaced by who played the entire 64 performance run on Broadway.
What was the role and who got to play the role on Broadway?
Posted by Seymour Butts @ 04/17/2002 01:55 PM PST
Posted by Mike the Answer Man @ 04/18/2002 05:40 PM PST

I think one of the scariest films ever was The Legend of Hell House with Roddy McDowall and Pamela Franklin (Where is she now?).
It was more atmosphere than the slice and dice variety that became popular with Haloween, Freddy, Jason and friednds. It really gave some really good jolts.
The Other and The Innocents were two other good scare films.
Don't Look Now (Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie)
The Changeling (Melvyn Douglas and George C Scott)
The Tennant (Roman Polanski, Melvyn Douglas, Shelly Winters and others)
Posted by Michael Shayne @ 04/18/2002 05:50 PM PST

Pamela Franklin is in Los Angeles, married to actor/bookstore owner Harvey Jason.
I do hope we get some more posts soon, or we're going to have to unbreak our broken record. Maybe the "horror" scared everybody off?
Posted by bk @ 04/18/2002 06:07 PM PST

Thanks for all the answers, Bruce. We love to keep you on your toes (the pose shows off your abs and buns of steel).
"Who's Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?" should have been on my list of comedies as well as my list of favorite movie scores (it's one of Mancini's best-- that and "The Great Race")
The original "Dracula," ("I don't drink.... wine.") The original "Frankenstein" and "Bride of Frankenstein" (Franz Waxman's score to the latter is wonderful), campy as they can be, are still great. Same with the original "Wolfman"
("Even a man who is pure of heart and says his prayers by night
Can become a wolf
When the wolfbane blooms,
And the autumn moon is bright.") and "The Invisible Man." (Una O'Connor's screaming alone is worth it.)
I would have to add "Wait Until Dark" (which still scares the beejezuz out me, and I had a lot of beejeezuz in me at the time) and
"When a Stranger Calls" (Colleen Dewhurst's perfotmance is brilliantly low key.)The thing that makes that film so scary is great suspense and lack of gore--it's all left to your imagination.
I saw "Carnival of Souls" as a kid, and it scared me then. I saw it years later, and although it's still creepy, it left me with a lot of beejeezuz. How does one spell beejeezuz anyway?
"Dead of Night" was on my noir list but definitely qualifies.
Posted by Kerry @ 04/18/2002 06:25 PM PST

Mention of Roman Polanski made me remember Rosemary's Baby is another one of my favorites. GOD what a fantastic movie.
There's a great story about the film, with which I will now proceed to bore you. Polanski was doing the scene where Ruth Gordon goes into the bedroom to make a phonecall. The DP (or cinematographer, or whoever it was) tells Polanski that hey, he's framing it wrong, and you can't quite see around the door to Gordon on the phone. Polanski says Leave me alone, I know what I'm doing.
So it's the premiere, and the DP or whoever is in the audience and when it comes to that scene, the entire audience cranes its collective neck to try and see around the doorframe to find out what in hell Gordon is up to.
Brilliant.
Posted by Lulu @ 04/18/2002 07:13 PM PST

Well, my Joe has got me into horror movies in recent years, and we continuously catch the classics (along with the 50s B "Sci-Fi" films which we true "SF" fans used to look down our noses at).
So I can indeed second all youse guys on "Dracula" and "Fankenstein" and "The Wolf Man" in their original incarnations--everything, in fact that came out of Hammer Studios. Without Hammer Studios there would be no "Sweeney Todd".
"Curse of the Demon". Yeah, the monster is super hokey, but my Joe used to hide under the covers when he was a kid, and now every time we see it I feel like hiding under the covers with that little kid, too.
"Creature from the Black Lagoon". I'm surprised to see you say "cheesy though it is". The underwater scenes are incredible--much better filmed and edited than the slow-paced underwater scenes in lots of the gigabuck James Bond films. The play-off between Richard Denning (aka Mr. North) and Richard Carlson (who led three lives) is quite good. On last viewing I realized how much of the recent "Anaconda" was ripped off directly from this classic.
But I have a few to add, some of them more recent:
"The Lost Boys" always give me as many chuckles as chills, and hey, Kiefer Sutherland is a damn sexy vampire to boot.
"Nightmare on Elm Street". Normally a bloodfest is not my cup of tea, but the great part is watching Heather Langenkamp work to outwit Freddy. Of course, in the later films it became centered on Freddy's tasteless one-liners--and this was the whole raisin d'etre for the Chucky series--sad, since Brad Dourif is a very capable actor. Anyway, the whole phenomenon of cheering for the mass murderer was finally satirized by Wes Craven in his last "Nightmare Movie"
And every movie Vincent Price ever made, that wonderfully campy old queen!
Posted by William F. Orr @ 04/18/2002 08:27 PM PST

Though billed as a horror film, but actually a study in horrific deeds, THE WICKER MAN is my choice for finest horror film. Is that a contradiction in terms? Am I going to be bitch-slapped?
THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS
THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM
THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH
THE CONQUERER WORM
THEATRE OF BLOOD
SUSPIRIA
OPERA
two from the Italian giallo genre with a keen sense of style, though not necessarily substance from Dario Argento.
PSYCHO
DEAD OF NIGHT
THE HAUNTING
THE INNOCENTS
FREAKS - still freaks me out after all these years.
THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN
Spanish DRACULA
THE INVISIBLE MAN
WEREWOLF OF LONDON
BRIDES OF DRACULA
CARRIE
PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES
BLACK SUNDAY
INCUBUS (Esperanto language film, the only one, I believe)
ANDY WARHOL'S FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN and BLOOD FOR DRACULA
THE HAUNTING OF HELL HOUSE
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD
Posted by td @ 04/18/2002 08:56 PM PST

Thanks for reminding me about "Rosemary's Baby."
I would have to add "Poltergeist"
and "The Stepford Wives."
Posted by Kerry @ 04/18/2002 09:17 PM PST

Re: "Mack and Mabel" and all the hirings and firings...something I found on the internet apprised me of all the ladies...Penny Fuller who might have been...Marcia Rodd who was and then wasn't...and then Kelly Garrett...and all of them fired and hired by none other than Gower Champion. And the rumor is that David Merrick did his best to get rid of Champion!!!
Re: the age differences between Peters and Preston. I've seen photos of Sennett and Normand. He was many years her senior. At that time, it wasn't considered odd, although eyebrows were raised if marriage didn't take place after a reasonable amount of time.
Posted by Ron Pulliam @ 04/18/2002 09:59 PM PST

I should add to my mention of "Nightmare on Elm Street" that the impressive thing about Heather Langenkamp's role as Nancy was that she was really the first woman in a horror movie (far as ah know) to take action rather than stand around and screem. And I must add:
"Poltergeist". Back when my Joe and I were just dating, he took me to see it right after it opened. Now Joe has a tendency to get wound up in horror flicks and yell at the TV "He's coming through the window, you fool!", so in the theatre he was literally crawling under his seat during the swimming pool scene.
I thought that was kind of cute and a ribbed him about it on the way home. He dropped me off at home, and I went to bed. Wouldn't you know, I couldn't sleep and kept eying my closet. I actually got dressed and went out to the local Bar & Grill for an hour just to be around people before I could face my spooky bedroom again.
And for some real oldies:
"M" Often immitated, never duplicated. Peter Lorrie's first chance to make your skin crawl.
"The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" Ditto re immitated, duplicated.
Posted by William F. Orr @ 04/19/2002 01:47 AM PST

As you can see, all this talk of horror movies has given me insomnia. So I post on.
"The Haunting". Of course, in the recent remake, once the house begins to twist and turn and all the dead rise and writhe you can actually see Shirley Jackson in one corner of the screen--turning in her grave! But even the original Julie Harris/Claire Bloom version doesn't do Jackson's novel justice, spooky though it is. I think it should be done as a musical.
And while we are talking about "Nightmare on Elm Street"--were we talking about "Nightmare on Elm Street?--sure, we were talking about "Nigtmare on Elm Street"!--anyway, while we are talking about "Nighmare on Elm Street", I have a trivia question:
Without using any reference materials, can anyone name the actor who played Nancy's boyfriend Glen, the one who perishes in the bed of blood? Remember, students, this is a closed book exam.
Posted by William F. Orr @ 04/19/2002 02:03 AM PST

To Ron:
Re: Gower and Merrick. This was an on going affair with them. Merrick threaten to fire. Gower threatened to quit. It was a power struggle between them. Merrick usually won.
Read all about it in the Abominable Showman by Howard Kissel.
Posted by Michael Shayne @ 04/19/2002 03:30 AM PST

William,
Of course I can answer your Elm Street question without consulting any reference books. Who could forget Johnny Depp's feature film debut? And an unimpressive debut it was, too. At least I think so. Strange to realize now that he's one of my very favorite actors, with his terrific performances in Ed Wood, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, etc.
Posted by Lulu @ 04/19/2002 04:09 AM PST

Thanks Michael. I had forgotten all about "Don't Look Now". I kept looking for a red dwarf when I was last in Venice! Likewise I had all but forgotten "The Tennant" which was indeed strange and disturbing.Unlike many others I did not really like Rosemary's Baby - I thought the end (the tail comment and the inverted cross above the crib if I remember correctly) were corn and unnecessary. I must now go and locate my 45 rpm "Theme from "Rosemary's Baby" as hummed by Mia Farrow!!!. I think it is stored next to Debbie Burton's "What Ever Happened To Baby Jane". I think Al Martino's "Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte" is there too. Does anyone remember Mad Magazine's "Hack Hack Sweet Hasbeen"?
Posted by Tom Guest (from OZ) @ 04/19/2002 04:45 AM PST

How could I have forgotten to of my favorites -- The Abominable Dr. Phibes and Dr. Phibes Rises Again! The sequel is in many ways just a reiteration of the former and more campy, but both are amazing. If you like Theatre of Blood these two are must-sees! (If for nothing else to hear Vincent Price warble "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" as he rows his boat across the River Styx.
Posted by Phil Crosby @ 04/19/2002 07:34 AM PST

Ooooh! I forgot one of my favorites. The first movie to ever scare the pants off me and send them running down the street was "Invasion of the body snatchers", the Donald Sutherland one. I didn't sleep for a week.
What were peoples first scary movie?
Posted by Mattso @ 04/19/2002 07:39 AM PST

Here's my list:
The Shining
When a Stranger Calls
The Omen
Pyscho
Closet Land
Soylent Green (also sci-fi)
Aliens
And GLITTER with Mariah Carey -- I was subjected to this on a plane back from LA and it was perhaps the SCARIEST thing I have ever seen
Posted by Craig @ 04/19/2002 08:00 AM PST

"Burnt Offerings" also really got me.
Posted by kerry @ 04/19/2002 08:29 AM PST

you're lame dude
Posted by Charla Perry @ 05/19/2003 03:26 PM PST

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