Big Bugs this Saturday night in Chicago…

A friend of mine here at the Library used to run the revival film program at the LaSalle Bank Cinema (literally a theater in a bank building), where they have run an old movie or two every Saturday night for years now.

I just noticed (thank you, Time Out Chicago) that this Saturday they are running a double bill of B.I. Gordon’s Beginning of the End (in which, fittingly, Chicago is menaced by giant grasshoppers) and even better, Black Scorpion. All for five bucks.

Show time is at 8:00, and the theater is at 4901 W. Irving Park Road in Chicago. There’s tons of free parking behind the building.

UPDATE: For cinema fans, here’s the upcoming attractions at the LaSalle (by the way, The Thin Man? One of the greatest movies ever):

Sep. 15: 8 p.m.   “Beginning of the End” and “The Black Scorpion”
Sep. 22: 8 p.m.   “Brother Orchid”
Sep. 29: 8 p.m.   “Daughters Courageous”
Oct. 6: 8 p.m.   “It Should Happen to You”
Oct. 13: 8 p.m.   “Stormy Weather”
Oct. 20: 8 p.m.   “Body and Soul”
Oct. 27: 8 p.m.   “Horror of Dracula”
Nov. 3: 8 p.m.   “You Were Never Lovelier”
Nov. 10: 8 p.m.   “Hangover Square”
Nov. 17: 8 p.m.   “Immortal Sergeant”
Nov. 24: 8 p.m.   “The Thin Man” and “The Kennel Murder Case”
Dec. 1: 8 p.m.   “Earth vs. The Flying Saucers”
Dec. 8: 8 p.m.   “Strike Up the Band”
Dec. 15: 8 p.m.   “The Dark Corner”
Dec. 22: 8 p.m.   “My Darling Clementine”
Dec. 29: 8 p.m.   “All About Eve”

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Ed Richardson

Horror of Dracula – just the sound of that creeps me out. Remember that 70s Dracula remake? I can’t remember the name and I haven’t seen it but Mad Magazine did a fine spoof of it. I just remember that with the lead they stressed the “ladies’ man” aspect. What is his name? Hold on…let me Google it…

Frank Langella. Movie has Laurence Olivia and Donald Pleasence too. I have to check it out.

The ’31 original will never be topped though. Just watch the scene where the brides come in trancelike and go after Renfield. That must have blown ’em away in ’31.
BeckoningChasm

I’ve at least heard of all of those films, except “Immortal Sergeant.” Sounds like a Charles Band rip-off of Captain America, but according to the IMDB, it’s the film Henry Fonda hated the most in his career.

That’s pretty impressive considering “Tentacles” and “The Swarm” and a few others…
turkish spock

Hey, Horror of Dracula’s actually really good. It’s the first Hammer one, with Cushing and Lee in it. The actual title was just ‘Dracula’ but it had to be changed for American release to avoid confusion with the Lugosi one, which was then still being revived regularly.

I might just go this Saturday. Neither one’s exactly the best film, but both are entertaining, especially for $5. I wonder if they still run serial chapters before the films.
Ed Richardson

The Hammer horror films – and personally let me just state that I have no experience with them outside of a commercial for a DVD compilation for $19.95…anyway, I think those movies scared the bejezus out of a whole generation. They came before the phenomenal horror films of the 70s (Exorcist, Texas C Saw M, Jaws, Carrie, The Omen, etc) but were in that period and the 50s. There’s something so serious about them. I think I can see how they inspired the Wachowski brothers – who were fond enough of them to hight snippets of Brides of Dracula in Matrix Revolutions.

I think there is a dramatic coldness to those films that, even though they seem melodramatic and campy today and formulaic today – some kind of coolness that in their day was probably pretty effective for chills.

Can anyone here elaborate?
turkish spock

Actually, I don’t think you’re not too far off on the original appeal of Hammer horror films, Ed. I think they initially took off because they offered something that nobody else was offering at the time. Superficially, of course, there was the color and the gore and the sex (both of which seem tame now, but were pretty pronounced at the time). Underneath, though, there’s a seriousness to them that really made them stand out. There’s not a lot of comedy in early Hammer films. Sure, there’s the occasional bit of Miles Mander doing his usual thing, but not the sort of constant comedy relief so common in horror films of the 30s and 40s. And the acting from Cushing and Lee is so serious and committed that it elevates even the sketchiest material.

There was also a cruelty to the early Hammers that was fairly uncommon in the 50s. Curse of Frankenstein, in particular, features a lead who is one cold-hearted bastard, but he’s also clearly the protagonist of the film and it was Dr. Frankenstein, not the monster, that they built their series around. So you get a whole series of films centered around a cold-hearted bastard.

Hammer films are pretty terrific overall. Check them out sometime.

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