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Greetings, and welcome to VIEWING THE CLASSICS. Here you'll find capsule reviews of vintage movies from the early days of cinema through the 1970s, with a special emphasis on sci-fi, horror, and mystery movies. Be sure to check out the Pages links, where you can find a Film Index of all my reviews, links to the reviews organized by cast members, directors, and other contributors, and links to my reviews of the films of talented young director Joshua Kennedy.

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Showing posts with label Bruce Gordon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bruce Gordon. Show all posts

Sunday, January 24, 2016

Curse Of The Undead (1959)

Starring Eric Fleming, Michael Pate, Kathleen Crowley, John Hoyt, Bruce Gordon
Directed by Edward Dein
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

In the Old West, a preacher tries to protect his girlfriend and her ranch from a gunslinger whom he discovers is a genuine vampire. 

I wouldn't place this film among the great vampire movies, but the Western setting does make it unusual and different, and the picture has some great shadow-filled photography from Ellis Carter and eerie music from Irving Gertz that elevates the film above other efforts.  Pate plays the vampire with nobility and an almost-friendly demeanor which makes it difficult to view him as a creature of evil, and his backstory which credits his vampirism to committing suicide in his past life comes off as a bit weak.  I still enjoyed the movie, and it was welcome to see Universal returning to the roots of its horror films, just not with enough success this time.

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Tower Of London (1962)

Starring Vincent Price, Michael Pate, Joan Freeman, Robert Brown, Bruce Gordon
Directed by Roger Corman
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

On the death of his brother, the king of England, the hunchbacked Richard of Gloucester plots and murders to seize the throne for himself, but is haunted by the ghostly apparitions of his victims.

It's difficult not to compare this adaptation of the story of Richard III to the 1939 version starring Basil Rathbone, which also featured Price in a lesser role.  Rathbone's version is the superior film in my mind, but the way the screenplay for this film casts Richard in a re-imagining of Shakespeare's MacBeth is interesting.  Price is good, playing a figure not dissimilar to some of the vile characters he played during Corman's Edgar Allan Poe cycle, and his supporting cast is accomplished as well, but Rathbone's Richard was a craftier villain, and Pate's role as henchman to Richard in this version, is far less memorable than Boris Karloff's executioner in the first film.