Tag Archives: 1933

“Ghosts on a Tree,” Franz Sedlacek, 1933

Poster for “The Vampire Bat” (1933)

Majestic Pictures.

Eric’s Insomniac Theater: “The Invisible Man” (1933)!

I try to watch at least one Universal Pictures monster movie every year before Halloween — it’s a little tradition of mine.  This time out it was James Whale’s 1933 adaptation of H. G. Wells’ 1897 novel, The Invisible Man.  (I actually do remember seeing this movie, or part of it, on television in the early 1980’s.  Gems played like this ran on weekends all the time.)

The film is pretty cornball stuff, but I love seeing an original Universal monster movie late at night — and it’s always wild getting a glimpse into period culture.  And Claude Rains does make a nicely menacing villain, even with his voice alone.  (Because, most of the time, y’know, you can’t actually see him.)

You can find the entire film right here at the Internet Archive.

And, hey, if the kindly Dr. Cranley looks familiar to you, yes, he is indeed played by Henry Travers — the angel Clarence in 1946’s “It’s a Wonderful Life.”



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“Better to write for yourself and have no public …”

“Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.”

— Cyril Connolly, The New Statesman, 1933

 

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Getting into the spirit of things …

I just need a Halloween horror playlist, though.  I’ve already seen this year’s “Castle Rock” and (of course) the second season of “Mr. Mercedes.”

“Vampire” (1979) and “The Last Broadcast” (1998) both come highly recommended by some horror-fan friends that I truly trust.  I also believe that I have never seen any of the classic Universal Studios monster movies in their entirety.  I’ve watched bits and pieces of a couple of them on television when I was a young kid, including “Creature From the Black Lagoon” (1954) and “The Invisible Man” (1933).  When I was a tot in the very late 70’s, the studio’s Gothic monsters were still very much a part of the zeitgeist … my older brother even had the Aurora model kits.  I finally enjoyed F. W. Murnau’s “Nosferatu” for the first time a couple of years ago, but of course the 1921 German film preceded the Universal movies, which re-imagined Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” entirely in 1931.

I’ll probably start first by trying to hunt down a copy of “The Wolf Man” (1941).  That’s the one that other everyone always recommends.

 

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Cover to “Amazing Stories,” A. Sigmond, February 1933

Teck Publishing.  The “Scientific Fiction” label is kind of interesting.

“A. Sigmond” has to got to be a pseudonym, right?  But these covers are awesome.  Who would want to remain anonymous for producing them?

 

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Cover to “Amazing Stories,” A. Sigmund, January 1933

Teck Publishing.  “Amazing Stories” did a run of covers in this style over a period of nine months in 1933.  (You can find them all over at Wikimedia Commons, and they’re in the public domain.)

What style of art is this?  Would it be art deco?

 

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Throwback Thursday: the WOR-9 Thanksgiving Monster Movie Marathon!!!

If you were a little kid on Long Island in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, then you remember Channel 9’s annual Thanksgiving monster movie marathon.  Dear God, did I love watching it with my Dad.  It was an EVENT.  I loved it far more than any Thanksgiving turkey — if they played monster movies all day, I think I’d cheerfully just enjoy Cocoa Puffs nonstop in front of the color TV in the family’s living room.

The Holy Trinity of monster movies, of course, consisted of “King Kong” (1933), “Son of Kong” (1933) and “Mighty Joe Young” (1949).  It’s a testament to these films’ staying power that they could still appeal to both children and adults roughly a half century after they were made.  Retrospect suggests it was probably a nice little father-son bonding exercise … my Dad was watching me thrill to the same monster action he enjoyed as a boy.  Special effects legend Ray Harryhausen truly blessed my childhood.

The DVD Drive-In website has a neat little nostalgic rundown right here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTuHnzGSNOs

 

 

 

Screenshot from “The Invisible Man” (1933)

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