Saturday, October 30, 2010

The Roar of Ballyhoo and the Thunder of Bullshit :: A 22 Vid-Cap Look at Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story (2007)

___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

"There is no God but gimmick. And [Castle is] his prophet."
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

And when I say bullshit,
Boils and Ghouls, I mean it most reverently...























Truthfully, Jeffrey Schwartz's biographical take on William Castle probably won't tell any hardcore fans anything they didn't already know. However, all that ghoulish info has been beautifully and lavishly packaged together with an eye-popping amount of publicity stills, background details and minutiae that makes this thing an absolute must see for any fans of Castle's gimmicks and bag of tricks.


Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story (2007) Automat Pictures :: Sony Pictures / EP: Sonja Nelson / P: Jeffrey Schwarz / AP: Taryn Teigue, Jack Mulligan / D: Jeffrey Schwarz / C: Adam Cindric, Steve Coleman, Robert Elfstrom, Matt Faw, Eugenia Fiumi, David A. Ford, David Hallinger, Chris Meagher, Jim Newport, Mark Putnam, Matt Stell, Clay Westervelt / E: Philip Harrison, Jeffrey Schwarz / M: Michael Cudahy / S: Terry Castle, Robert Bloch, Bob Burns, Forrest J Ackerman, John Badham, Diane Baker

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Memphis Or Bust -- And a Few Points In-Between.

Here's a few snapshots and candids from my recent trip south with my fellow Sons of Tupelo, where we covered about five States in two days. I don't know how long I'll leave these up as I don't know if it's technically legal to post some of these, but, eh, what the hell. Enjoy!


Giant statue of Mark Twain outside of Hannibal, MO.
(Anyone else getting a Zardoz vibe, here?)


Wohoo! And Hot Damn! I can get me a Sasquatch Turd!
(a/k/a a Stuckey's Foot-Long Pecan Log.)


Sitting on the porch of the house where the Big E was born.
(Tupelo, Miss.)


Mississippi Sunset.
(Somewhere on Route 278.)


And our literary tour continues with a visit to William Faulkner's grave.
(Oxford, Miss.)


Gates to Graceland.


The infamous Jungle Room.
(Sorry for the dinginess. No flash photos inside the mansion.)


Bizarre refractions in mirrored stairwell on the way to the basement.


All about the gold lame suit, baby.


...Aaaaand the Captain Marvel Jr. Jumpsuits.


Inside the Lisa Marie.
(Shoulda got a picture of the opulent toitee in that thing.)


Holy crap! It's my house circa 1977.
(Except we had Moody Blue on 8-Track.)


MmmMMmm. Fried Peanut-Butter and Nanner Sammich.
(Alas, bacon was not an option.)


Where giants walked and recorded, folks.


Elvis, Bill, Scotty and Sam.


And it all began...


... right there.



The trip was overwhelming, intoxicating (in more ways than you'd think), and a total @#%*ing riot. And to my fellow SOTS, Dave and Bill, thanks for the new stories, gentlemen -- make that: M'boys, M'boys...

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Slouching Toward Memphis :: TCB, Baby! The Sons of Tupelo Ride Again!


Just a quick notice that I'm pulling up stakes for a week and heading south, southeast with my fellow Sons of Tupelo for a four day weekend in Memphis, Graceland, Beale Street and the Flying Saucer Bar that promises a beer that tastes like bourbon. You only turn 40 once, right? Anyways ... Start saving the bail money now, folks, and I'll return sometime next week.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Meme Leech :: Leaving a Lasting Impression x 15.

This 15 Directors meme officially kicked off at Films from the Supermassive Black Hole and has since weeded its way through the Blogoshpere. The rules are fairly self-explanatory: list off the first 15 directors that come to your head that have shaped the way you look at movies, and the ones that will always stick with you. I didn't think about it too long, as ordered, and here's what my brain regurgitated up:

Anthony Mann ::

Man of the West, Winchester '73, Men in War


Bert I. Gordon ::


Amazing Colossal Man, Tormented, Village of the Giants


Eddie L. Cahn (Left) ::


Invasion of the Saucer Men, IT! The Terror from Beyond Space


Gordon M. Douglas ::

THEM!, Rio Conchos, Tony Rome


Howard Hawks ::

The Thing from Another World, Rio Bravo, His Girl Friday


Ishirô Honda (Left) ::


Gojira et al., War of the Gargantuas, The H-Man


Jacques Tourneur ::

The Cat People, Out of the Past, Curse of the Demon


Joe Dante ::

Piranha, Matinee, The Howling


Joel and Ethan Coen ::

O' Brother, Where Art Thou, Raising Arizona,
The Big Lebowski


John Carpenter ::

Halloween, The Fog, Big Trouble in Little China


John Llewellyn Moxey ::

The Night Stalker, The House that Would Not Die,
Home for the Holidays


Mario Bava ::

Just about everything -- except for
Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Bombs.


Ray Dennis Steckler ::

Incredibly Strange Creatures etc., Rat Pfink a Boo Boo,
Thrill Killers



Roger Corman ::

Creature from the Haunted Sea, The Raven,
X: Man with the X-Ray Eyes


Seijun Suzuki ::

Branded to Kill, Gates of Flesh, Tokyo Drifter

For the record: Brad Bird, Monte Hellman, Sam Raimi, Samuel Fuller, Budd Boetticher, Phil Karlson, Clint Eastwood, Sergio Leone, Sam Peckinpah, Billy Wilder, Nicholas Ray, Michael Mann, and many, many others could have made this list as well.
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