Purrs and howdys, Kittens & Dawgs! A couple of weeks ago, I shared Halloween masks from my childhood. The gypsy mask got me to thinking about watching vintage horror films in my childhood, especially the Lon Chaney, Jr. who played a cursed soul as “The Wolf Man”. I remember thinking this was scary.
I always felt bad for Chaney’s character. I wanted the curse to end but I knew the only way death by a silver bullet. I also saw his other Wolf Man flick, “Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man” (1947) and as an adult we saw the comedy Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) in which Chaney played his “Wolf Man” character Lawrence Talbot. What a fun movie!
Speaking of Frankenstein, Boris Karloff played the fiendish monster in the 30s and the late 50s as Doctor Frankenstein. I definitely remember mostly watching Karloff on the late night TV program “Chiller” as the monster in the late 60s through the 70s, as in The Mummy (1932) movie. Staying up late to catch the creepy fun was a popular thing to do on Saturday nights.
There are other notable creep masters Peter Cushing, Peter Lorre, Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, and Bela Lugosi to name a few. These actors did creepy well portraying the supernatural purrfectly! The scariest non-monster film but monsterous in other ways I ever saw was Pyscho with Anthony Perkins. A slasher movie where you don’t actually see any slashing. Alfred Hitchcock was a genious at making spin-tingling thrillers.
Horror movies today don’t do much for me and I’d rather watch some fun 80s & 90s classics. Two of our favorites are Ghostbusters or Young Frankenstein. We probably will watch one of these this weekend since Halloween is on a weekday.
Do you have a favorite Halloween movie – horror or comedy you’d like to recommend?
In November I’m kicking off “Memories of Thanksgiving from Long Ago to Recent Past” series. That’s all for now join me tomorrow for some laughs with my Friday Fun Stuff Halloween Sillies Edition!
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Shiver me timers!
I’m not a scary fan so I wont peek at these clips.
I just read the interesting write up!
I haven’t seen most of these, but I saw Psycho-that is scary.
Oh, I love the golden oldies…the really old stuff. Lon Chaney, Boris Karloff, etc. I am a silver screen fan, though. Bette Davis, James Cagney, Bogie, Bacall…so, this is a great post! Thanks, my friend. I am a bit off this week, so bear with me. I still have an ear infection. *grrr*
Don’t forget the original Phantom of the Opera! It was chilling in its day.
My taste runs more toward the silly, like the spoof movie Saturday The Fourteenth, or one of the Halloween Town movies.
Mimi,
I saw the vintage Phantom of the Opera and loved it as a kid! I like the less serious Halloween movies, too. Other than the ones mentioned, I also like the Mummy movies with Branden Frasier. The script is well written with just the right amount of comic relief. 🙂
The Wolfman is a great movie and one I spoke about last week. Love Abbott & Costello and that movie is so much fun. I love Young Frankenstein and the 80’s movie Fright Night. I love Phantom of the Opera..the 1925 version as well as the 40s version and the 60s version too. The 60s version of The Haunting is excellent. Theatre of Blood is great but a bit gruesome. The Others, The Innocents, Dracula with Gary Oldman..a great film in my book.
Hi, Cathy!
You simply must stop presenting irresistible posts that are too good to miss! 🙂 I could go on and on discussing the topic of vintage horror films and TV programs. Lon Chaney Jr., Boris Karloff and Vincent Price are my favorite scary movie actors and I have seen dozens of their films. In fact, I have seen all of the movies you listed as having seen including Pycho, Ghostbusters and Young Frankenstein. That’s so cool!
I first saw The Wolf Man around the age of 5 or 6. The old gypsy woman played to perfection by Russian born actress Maria Ouspenskaya made quite an impression on me. Like you I felt a great deal of sympathy and compassion for Larry Talbot, a man who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, was bitten by the beast and involuntarily transformed into a werewolf by the light of the full moon. As I watched that trailer for The Wolf Man I noticed quite a few similarities to Michael Jackson’s Thriller video of the 80s which was obviously influenced by The Wolf Man and other vintage films of the horror genre.
I was a big fan of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. I watched their TV series and saw most of their “Meet” movies including A & C meet Frankenstein, A & C Meet Boris Karloff, A & C Meet The Invisible Man, A & C Meet Jekyll & Hyde and A & C Meet The Mummy.
I enjoyed Boris Karloff in his movie roles as the Frankenstein monster, The Mummy and, a quarter century later in the late 50s as The Haunted Strangler. I also never missed Karloff’s anthology television series Thriller which gave other creepy TV series like The Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Way Out, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents a run for their money.
Vincent Price is my favorite horror actor because, more than any other, he made horror fun. I saw Vincent Price in The Fly, House On Haunted Hill, The Tingler, The Bat, Tower Of London, The Masque Of The Red Death, and in his string of films based on the stories of Edgar Allan Poe which include House Of Usher, Pit And The Pendulum, Tales Of Terror, The Raven and The Haunted Palace.
Thanks for this funtastic vintage horror movie post, dear friend Cathy!