Change Your Image
crmurton-1
Reviews
Giant (1956)
The house in 'Giant'
For me, the star of the film is that strange, alien, Gothic monstrosity jutting up out of the red Texas landscape. Along with Manderlay, and the Bates residence, it is one of the great houses in cinema.
The house's interior feels especially odd in the first half of the film. Some parts look like a Victorian country house, some parts could almost be inside a Gothic revival church, and it has unexpected, moth-eaten cattle heads poking out from polished wooden walls, which give the interior a very unsettling atmosphere.
The pictures on the wall are all cattle-oriented, and the whole film, when presenting action at the house, is dominated by a vast Frederick Remington painting - which is the only thing that survives an egg-shell blue 50s makeover, a feminine makeover which completely ruins the old interior.
Later in the film the bare, dusty exterior of the house (which begins on the front step - there is no garden!) is similarly corrupted by the construction of a barbecue area, a swimming pool and so on.
I would have liked to have seen more of the house's exterior. It is seen at its best in long shot during the big barbecue scene in the early part of the film.
Does anyone know if the house was a real one, and if it still stands?
Night of the Ghouls (1959)
One of Ed Wood's best.
I agree that the film is one of the director's best, and I enjoyed it more than 'Plan Nine from Outer Space.' I wish Bunny Breckenridge had been in the cast though.
Valda Hansen, in a beautiful, flouncy Victorian gown, is ravishing, and she and the black ghost, along with Vampira (in 'Plan Nine', but not in this film) show that Ed Wood would have loved the Gothick style of female fashion - which sadly only appeared after he had died.
I have read the comments here, and a bit more about Ed Wood, and I'm surprised that nobody has noticed that in the opening scene of 'Night of the Ghouls' there is a small 'WANTED' picture of Ed Wood himself sticky-taped onto the wall of the police station.
The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre (1964)
a very good chiller
I have seen this film a number of times, since it was not uncommonly screened on Australian late night television in the 1960s.
Martin Landau's wife is dead, and interred in a crypt in the grounds of the family mansion. There is a phone line leading from the crypt to inside the house itself, and when it rings anguished sobbing is heard on the line.
Martin Landau believes it is his wife's ghost sobbing, but in fact it is connected with the ghost of an old Spanish mission, a painting of which is on the wall of the main room of the house.
The film is strong on atmosphere. There are slow, lingering shots which follow the phone line out of the house, and down to the granite crypt, which are quite creepy. However, the ghost, when it appears, is a disappointment.
The film never leaves the house and its grounds, and looks cheaply made, but it is one of those 'irresistable' films; the type that might become a cult favourite. Now I know why it looks cheap - it was a TV pilot!
The Haunting (1963)
superb atmosphere, but falls short of frights
The film is an enjoyable romp, but it has to be admitted that it doesn't really 'deliver'. 'Psycho', made three years before 'The Haunting', is a much more terrifying film, and even today it packs a lot of punch, while 'The Haunting' has started to look comfortably corny.
'The Haunting' displays many of the genre elements of the classic ghost story. For example, the house is large, opulent, and fascinating. Nobody has ever set a good ghost story in a trailer home. And the food is excellent - the best ghost stories invariably feature first class cuisine.
Even though 'The Haunting' does not really frighten you, it has many magnificent images, more so than the very similar 'The Legend of Hell House' (Richard Matheson seems to have ripped off the Shirley Jackson novel when he wrote this), and is certainly a film that I can watch over and over again. Here are a few of my favourites:
1) The nocturnal long shots of the house itself. I wish I had a print of this shot; the house is superbly spooky in the moonlight. Can anyone tell me where it is? (I know it's in England)
2) A repeated image of a piece of the pattern of some wallpaper, the shadowing of which resembles a twisted face with its mouth open, screaming, like something from the work of Edvard Munch. I am surprised that no writings about the film mention this - the image recurs again and again.
3) The breath-condensing 'cold spot' outside the nursery, with the visible breath of the investigators standing out against the black corridor.
4) The extraordinarily ugly and unsettling 'St Francis Healing the Lepers' statue.
5) Hugh Crain's daughter living her whole life in the Hill House nursery, and the shots of her ageing face, from girlhood to bitter old maid.
The film is vastly superior to the remake, and does have a few scary moments, such as the violently banging, inbending door, especially when the knob begins to turn (what would they see if they opened it?) There is a brief shock towards the end that makes you jump as well.
A classic of its kind, very much a black and white film (whoever mooted colourising 'The Haunting' should be hanged from the iron staircase in the library - the idea was stopped, thank God). But not the most terrifying film ever made.