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Gay Flowers.

March featured a variety of conversations, including the Kristen Stewart vehicle Personal Shopper (listen), Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train (listen), and Raja Gosnell‘s live-action cartoon sequel Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (listen here).

After previously covering The Old Dark House and Bride of Frankenstein, we wrapped the month up with another James Whale classic, The Invisible Man (1933).

In the film, Jack Griffin (Claude Rains) is an egomaniac with plans to sell his invisibility formula for a fortune, but first he has to “find a way back” from invisibility with the help of scientist/love interest, Dr. Kemp (William Harrigan). Alas, Griffin’s serum has also turned him insane and murderous, and he embarks on a killing spree that will claim the highest body count of any Universal Monster title.

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts,...

Actor John Wayne starred in Western and war movies that filled his filmography. However, he didn’t initially get his start in front of the camera. First, Wayne worked at Fox in the props department on several films before getting his first leading role in Raoul Walsh’s 1930 Western adventure called The Big Trail. Here are the eight movies Wayne worked on in the props department before he was famous.

John Wayne | ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images ‘The Great K & A Train Robbery’ (1926) L-r: Dorothy Dwan as Madge Cullen and Tom Mix as Tom Gordon | Fox

A detective poses as a bandit in an undercover mission to stop a streak of train robberies from continuing. Meanwhile, he falls in love with the railroad president’s daughter.

The Great K & A Train Robbery is a silent film directed by Lewis Seiler and written by John Stone from Paul Leicester Ford’s novel.

Svengoolie, a.k.a. Rich Koz, has been working as a horror host since 1979, and over the decades his show has grown from airing in select areas – Chicago, Milwaukee, and South Bend, for example – to being broadcast nationwide on the MeTV network. And in 2023, Svengoolie’s show is going to be growing in a different way. It’s going to be 30 minutes longer!

Fangoria broke the news that, staring in January, Svengoolie will now air from 8pm to 10:30 pm (Eastern) on Saturday nights. The show’s timeslot had previously been from 8 to 10. Here are the first batch of movies that will benefit from the show’s extended running time:

The Raven: Saturday, January 7 – 8pm-10:30pm Et

Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, Jack Nicholson (1963) – Horror

Inspired by the famous Edgar Allan Poe poem, a magician, who has been turned into a raven, turns to a former sorcerer for help.

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Celebrate Nine Decades Of Your Favorite Monsters On 4K For The Very First Time In Collectible Packaging

Available On 4K, Blu-ray™ And Digital On October 5, 2021

From Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

Synopsis: From the era of silent movies through present day, Universal Pictures has been regarded as the home of the monsters. Universal Classic Monsters Icons of Horror Collection showcases four of the most iconic monsters in motion picture history including Dracula, Frankenstein, The Invisible Man and The Wolf Man. Starring Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr. and Claude Rains in the roles that they made famous, these original films set the standard for a new horror genre with revolutionary makeup, mood-altering cinematography and groundbreaking special effects.

Classic Monster Films Included:

Dracula (90th Anniversary) Frankenstein (90th Anniversary) The Invisible Man The Wolf Man (80th Anniversary)

Hours Of Bonus Content, Including:

The Road to...

“The spider spinning his web for the unwary fly… The blood is the life, Mr. Renfield.”

Celebrate Nine Decades Of Your Favorite Monsters On 4K For The Very First Time In Collectible Packaging. Available On 4K, Blu-ray And Digital On October 5th

From the era of silent movies through present day, Universal Pictures has been regarded as the home of the monsters. Universal Classic Monsters Icons of Horror Collection showcases four of the most iconic monsters in motion picture history including Dracula, Frankenstein, The Invisible Man and The Wolf Man. Starring Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr. and Claude Rains in the roles that they made famous, these original films set the standard for a new horror genre with revolutionary makeup, mood-altering cinematography and groundbreaking special effects.

Classic Monster Films Included:

Dracula (90th Anniversary)Frankenstein (90th Anniversary)The Invisible ManThe Wolf Man (80th Anniversary)

Hours Of Bonus Content, Including:...

This January, NBCUniversal is offering fans the chance to dive into some of Universal Pictures’ most gruesome classic films ever made on one of the world’s biggest horror YouTube channels, ‘Fear: The Home of Horror.’

Starting January 15th 2021 horror fans will have the opportunity to scare away the January blues and take a step back in time to watch an incredible array of classic re-mastered cult films for Free including Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), The Mummy (1932), The Invisible Man (1933), The Wolf Man (1941), Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948).

Each film will premiere individually and be available to watch for seven days on the Fear: The Home of Horror YouTube channel. Additionally, during each film’s premiere week, fans will have the opportunity to add these films to their digital collection at a discounted price, allowing them to watch whenever they want, for as many times as they want!

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By Doug Oswald

The Duke teams up with Robert Ryan as Marine pilots fighting the Japanese in the Pacific during WWII in “Flying Leathernecks,” just released on Blu-ray via the Warner Archive Collection. The story picks up in Hawaii in the middle of 1942 as Major Daniel Kirby (John Wayne) takes command of a Marine Corps aviation squadron about to ship out for combat in the Pacific. A veteran of the Battle of Midway, Kirby meets the men in his unit along with his executive officer, Captain Carl “Griff” Griffin (Robert Ryan), who is a bit ruffled after being passed over to take command. While a great pilot, Griff is not good at making difficult life and death decisions regarding the other pilots and has become their friend.

On Guadalcanal, the squadron pilots become experts at close air support which is precision...

The murky crimes of sordid characters come to the fore in the wide-open Nevada spaces… producer Hal Wallis’ Technicolor noir concentrates on the possessive and perverse competition for Lizabeth Scott’s luscious blonde — the mother that wants to corral her, the gangster who thinks she’s an escape and the local hunk who wears a badge. Robert Rossen’s edgy screenplay depicts its violent action on a psychological level.

Desert Fury

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1947 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 96 min. / Street Date Feb 26, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Burt Lancaster, Lizabeth Scott, John Hodiak, Wendell Corey, Mary Astor, Kristine Miller, William Harrigan, James Flavin, Anna Camargo, Ray Teal.

Cinematography: Edward Cronjager, Charles Lang

Film Editor: Warren Low

Original Music: Miklos Rosza

Written by Robert Rossen from the novel by Ramona Stewart

Produced by Hal B. Wallis

Directed by Lewis Allen

As he was under contract to Hal Wallis, Burt Lancaster...

Paranoid, vengeful, with skin so thin you can see through it, The Invisible Man is the most nakedly neurotic of Universal’s classic monsters (beating out Larry Talbot by a hair). That said, this particular monster was something of a one-note character yet the diligent creators behind the subsequent sequels did their best to introduce a little variety into his act. Those films have just been released in a new Blu-ray set containing the original 1933 classic, the four sequels and the invisible one’s 1951 run-in with Abbott and Costello, all in immaculate transfers from Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

The Invisible Man Complete Legacy Collection

Blu ray

Universal Studios Home Entertainment

1933, ‘40, ‘41, ‘42, ‘44, ‘51/ 1.33:1 / Street Date August 28, 2018

Starring Claude Rains, Gloria Stuart, Vincent Price, Virginia Bruce, John Barrymore, Jon Hall

Cinematography by Arthur Edeson, Milton Krasner

Directed by James Whale, Joe May, Ford Beebe

The story of a mild-mannered scientist driven mad by his own experiments,...

A solid mainstream hit for 1947, Loretta Young and Joseph Cotten’s political fairy tale maintains its charm despite the usual populist dodges — a spirited young woman finds both romance and The American Dream when she runs for Congress. But will the political system accept her?

The Farmer’s Daughter

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1947 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 97 min. / Street Date September 25, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Loretta Young, Joseph Cotten, Ethel Barrymore, Charles Bickford, Rhys Williams, Harry Davenport, Tom Powers, William Harrigan, Keith Andes, Harry Shannon, Lex Barker, Thurston Hall, Art Baker, Don Beddoe, James Arness, Anna Q. Nilsson, Charles McGraw, John Gallaudet, William B. Davidson, Cy Kendall, Frank Ferguson, William Bakewell, Charles Lane Forrest J. Ackerman, Robert Clarke.

Film Editor: Harry Marker

Original Music: Leigh Harline

Written by Allen Rivkin, Laura Kerr, from a play by Juhani Tervapää

Produced by Dore Schary

Directed by H.C. Potter

This year...

After a little over a year of doing this column, I think you and I have a pretty good thing going. If you’ve come this far and are still willing to follow my incessant ramblings, I think our relationship can survive a wee confession: hard as I try, I just cannot get into the Universal Monsters movies. Don’t get me wrong, I value them for laying the foundations of the horror genre, but when it comes to actually watching them, I just don’t find them as engaging as more modern films.

Take, for example, James Whale’s iconic Frankenstein. This is a movie that defined gothic horror and created the look for Frankenstein’s monster that would be ingrained in our collective consciousness for generations. I’m a huge fan of the film’s visual aesthetic and the notion of a sympathetic villain is one that always resonates with me.

Our series on remakes continues with a movie which is ironic because it’s about a man who can’t be seen but in reality, it’s actually the movie which shouldn’t be seen. This week, Cinelinx looks at The Hollow Man (2000).

The Hollow Man is a modern reimaging of the oft-copied Invisible Man story, first brought to the screen by Universal Studios in 1933. The story is based on H. G. Wells' famous science fiction novel “The Invisible Man”, published in 1897, which told the tale of a scientist who develops an invisibility serum and uses himself as a test subject, becoming both invisible and dangerously insane.

The 1933 classic The Invisible Man, which was part of Universal Studios cluster of successful horror film franchises, was directed by James Whale, who also directed Frankenstein and the Bride of Frankenstein. The 1933 version has an impressive 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It was selected...

Netflix has revolutionized the home movie experience for fans of film with its instant streaming technology. Netflix Nuggets is my way of spreading the word about independent, classic and foreign films made available by Netflix for instant streaming.

Sorry, folks… there are simply too many great films streaming this week to post an image for them all, but that’s a good thing, eh? You’ve got your movie watching work cut out for you, due in great part to Miramax releasing damn near their entire catalog of films on one day!

B. Monkey (1999)

Streaming Available: 05/01/2011

Director: Michael Radford

Synopsis: Good-hearted schoolteacher Alan Furnace (Jared Harris) desperately wants some excitement in his life — and he may just get some. One lonely night at a London bar, Alan spies the raven-haired beauty Beatrice (Asia Argento) arguing with two friends, Paul (Rupert Everett) and Bruno (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers). Beatrice quickly befriends Alan and...

Netflix has revolutionized the home movie experience for fans of film with its instant streaming technology. Netflix Nuggets is my way of spreading the word about independent, classic and foreign films made available by Netflix for instant streaming.

This Week’s New Instant Releases… Title: Black Heaven (2010)

Streaming Available: 04/12/2011

Cast: Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet, Louise Bourgoin, Melvil Poupaud, Pauline Etienne, Pierre Niney, Ali Marhyar, Patrick Descamps, Pierre Vittet, Swann Arlaud, Francesco Merenda

Director: Gilles Marchand

Synopsis: While searching for the owner of a missing mobile phone with his girlfriend, Marion (Pauline Etienne), Gaspard (Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet) falls for the mysterious Sam (Louise Bourgoin), who draws him into a dangerous virtual-reality video game, where she provokes unsuspecting victims into killing themselves. Directed by Gilles Marchand, this intense French drama alternates between real-life events and those within the simulated computer world. Title: Heartless (2009)

Streaming Available: 04/12/2011

Cast: Jim Sturgess, Clémence Poésy , Noel Clarke, Luke Treadaway, Justin Salinger,...

By 1933, Universal Studios had become a veritable fear factory, thanks to the efforts of production head Carl Laemmle Jr. After the amazing profits earned from Dracula, Frankenstein and The Mummy, he was eager to find Universal's next horror property, and fast.

Carl Junior had been trying to get a Frankenstein sequel off the ground, but director James Whale, who had been so instrumental to the original film's success, had been resistant to the idea. Whale was a true artist who did not like to repeat himself, so the idea of a sequel was distasteful at best, even if it was guaranteed to be a hit.

In an effort to mollify Carl Junior and satisfy his desire for something in the realm of the fantastic, Whale expressed interest in filming The Invisible Man, based on H. G. Wells' 1897 sci-fi novella. It presented some special challenges and was just different enough from...