Well, back from the dead. I was back halfway last week. However, I was exhausted, and blindsided at work by something which meant I’ve barely started getting caught up yet. So this will be a busy workweek, especially since I’m planning to take off all of next week in conjunction with Thanksgiving. I love traveling and seeing all my pals, but a week to just lounge around the house sounds equally fantastic.
By the way, Jabootu commenter Cullen joined us this year (and would have been there Friday night if I hadn’t been a moron on the instructions to get into Sandy’s gated complex). I can only hope he had a great time and felt justified in making the trip.
Anyhoo, I arrived in Dallas a week ago Thursday. Sandy’s wonderful wife Wendy generously (as always) picked me up from the airport. Also arriving that day were Chad R my old high school friend Jeff. We kicked things off with a Krimi, which both Chad and I adore. This was was a color one–which meant a tiny bit of nudity–called The Man with the Glass Eye. It was great.
Friday began and more people started arriving throughout the day. Arthur had gotten the Blu Ray for New York Ninja, a lost film that they recovered and dubbed with a new soundtrack featuring a bunch of ‘stars”, like Don The Dragon Wilson as the main character. The film was a little flabby, but mostly fun.
Sandy was on a Hammer kick, so we watched a few of their pre-horror stuff. Stranglers of Bombay was, unsurprisingly, about the murderously Thuggee cult in India during the Raj. Really nicely done historical flick with obviously a touch of the horror that would define Hammer in the years to come. One of the villains was played by Roger Delgado, the first and still finest Master from Doctor Who. He didn’t have a ton of screentime, but it was great seeing him.
Next was the similar Terror of the Tongs, which Christopher Lee again playing the World’s Tallest Chinaman. (Delgado was also in this one but with basically nothing to do.) Not quite as good as Stranglers, but occasionally shocking in ways you wouldn’t expect from a film from that period. A young Burt Kwouk has a pivotal role early on. The mix of actual Asians playing the Chinese characters, mixed in with the numerous Englishmen doing the same, played a bit weird.
Finally we got our first Monday. I was never as interested in the Hammer Frankensteins as I was their vampire pictures, so I’m not sure I’d ever actually seen the Film That Started it All, The Curse of Frankenstein, all the way through. Cushing plays a real bastard of a Baron Frankenstein, and Lee is the Creature. I doubt I need to see this one, it’s great.
