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The production, which returns to the Open Air Theatre tonight, will play at the Barbican next summer following its forthcoming UK tour
The prolific actor and director was one of the leading figures of British stage and screen in the post-war years
Gordon Greenberg's production at Chichester Festival Theatre has proved popular
Producers of the concert show are looking for a new Fab Four
There will also be an anniversary CD released on the day of the gala, 22 September
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The upcoming Winter season also includes Buyer and Cellar starring Michael Urie
The actress, who was playing Elphaba on tour, will not join the West End production as previously announced
Take our weekly quiz to find out how up to date you are on the news from theatreland
The production which was scheduled for October will now run at Theatro Technis next year
The director has reportedly clashed with Back to the Future creator Bob Gale
Matthew Seadon-Young will take over from Richard Fleeshman in the lead role of Bobby Strong for the run at the Apollo Theatre
Tim Firth's comedy about a disastrous team building exercise was last seen in the West End 20 years ago
Negotiations between producers and NT Live are reportedly "well advanced"
The play is co-written by Wilde's grandson Merlin Holland
Two major revivals have recently announced full casting
The composer of The Boy Friend displayed 'taste, charm and style in every lyric and bar of music that he wrote'
McKellen tipped a bucket of iced water over the four cycling thesps
The production, which returns to the Open Air Theatre tonight, will play at the Barbican next summer following its forthcoming UK tour
We asked our wonderful twitter followers to join in with #SwapALetterChangeAShow, the results were brilliant
Stephen Sondheim's musical is a bittersweet tale of love, loneliness and survival as a modern singleton
Wilson was best known for his musical The Boy Friend
The production opens at the Greenwich Theatre in October
A round-up of some of the best shows at this year's Edinburgh Fringe
Open air theatre company The Lord Chamberlain's Men, named after Shakespeare's original troupe of travelling players, are celebrating their tenth anniversary this year
The Theatre Royal Bath has announced stellar casting for its autumn season in the Ustinov Studio
The ticketing website went down as the entire gala performance on 22 September sold out in minutes


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Latest in New Orleans
Tracing the tracks of Kerouac On the Road
WITH the film adaptation of Jack Kerouac's On the Road just released, Robert Reid explores the five cities that kept calling Kerouac back.
New Orleans Mardi Gras basks in beads
BATHED in spring-like warmth and showered with trinkets, New Orleans revelled in excesses of Fat Tuesday.
Brad Pitt's guide to New Orleans
"NEW Orleans has a real spirit. It's the most authentic of all American cities," asserts Brad Pitt.
Jazz it up New Orleans
THE traditionally upbeat Big Easy spirit is alive and kicking, as John Swords discovers in New Orleans' French Quarter.

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Course: Meditation Practice on the Graded Stages of the Path (Lam-rim)
Alexander Berzin
Berlin, Germany, June 23, 2009 – ongoing
Berlin, Germany, June 23, 2009 – ongoing
Part IV: Safe Direction (Refuge)
23. The Three Precious Gems – Buddha
December 08, 2009
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The Strange Pleasure of the Leopard Man
Gender, Genre and Authorship in a Val Lewton Thriller
Scott Preston (Cineaction 71)
The recent release by Turner Home Entertainment of the entire Val Lewton horror collection on DVD is both a cause for celebration and an incentive to reevaluation. As one film (The Ghost Ship, 1943) has long been unavailable, this is the first time in sixty years that all of the great RKO producer's influential thrillers can be viewed together as an oeuvre. While a few of the films have stood the test of time, recognized as classics for decades, others have been paid little notice, and a few entirely forgotten. What follows is a close look one of the latter, 1943's The Leopard Man, adapted from the great pulp novelist Cornell Woolrich's Black Alibi.1
This story of the hunt for a disturbed serial killer who uses a cat's claw as his weapon of choice was the third film produced by the unit, following their masterpieces Cat People (1942) and I Walked with a Zombie (1942). Jacques Tourneur, who directed all three, would go on to make the film noir classic Out of the Past (1947). Auteur studies of the unit's films, whether focused on Lewton or Tourneur, normally mention The Leopard Man only in passing; Cat People and Zombie are the great works and Leopard was a misfire. Three books published on Val Lewton share a dismissive attitude toward the film. The only sustained analysis in English is in Chris Fujiwara's book, Jacques Tourneur: The Cinema of Nightfall.2 While it makes for an excellent starting point, there is much more to say about this flawed yet fascinating work.
I agree with the consensus that Leopard lacks the transcendent poetic quality of its two predecessors. Yet, there are a number of reasons why it deserves a closer look. A proper examination does not exist of the film's source material and the team's work of adaptation. Woolrich remains to this day an underappreciated figure in America literature, arguably contributing more material to film, radio and television than did any other pulp writer of his generation. His best novels of the 1940s, of which Black Alibi is one, can easily stand alongside those of his more celebrated contemporaries. Leopard also marks a number of firsts. The fusion of Woolrich, Lewton and Tourneur make the film arguably the first noir-horror hybrid, entangling generic, stylistic and thematic elements that remain in place in cinema to this day. Additionally, the rise of the serial killer as a significant figure in American popular culture lends importance to what is perhaps the first realistic representation of this modern monster in American movies.
It is the unique relays between authorship, genre and 1940s gender issues that animate this modest thriller, priming it for close study. My analysis of The Leopard Man will concentrate on three areas: affect, theme, and character. In all of these, the film has clear intentions, but its success with each is limited. At the level of affect, Lewton and his team have set out to create an atmosphere of terror and suspense, much as they had so successfully done with their first two attempts at the horror genre. In its best moments, the film equals its predecessors for nail-biting tension and frights. Yet, its unique approach in this area limits its ability to develop a narrative as thematically rich as those earlier works. The film's central theme of doomed fortune is both a legitimate poetic approach to sadness and loss, and a disturbing evasion of the real social issues of gender and violence tied to its representations. The tension between allegory and history plays out in the development of the story's central characters: Jerry Manning, the protagonist/investigator; Clo-Clo, the doomed dancer; and, Dr. Galbraith, the serial killer.
By comparing the film to its source novel by Woolrich, considering its relationship to horror and film noir, and reflecting on its representation of men and women, I hope to arrive at a better understanding of its ideological tensions as well as an appreciation for the film's strengths in spite of its weaknesses.
"An entrance they'll never forget"
The Leopard Man is set in an unnamed city in the American Southwest in the present day. Jerry Manning/Dennis O'Keefe is a publicity agent for his girlfriend Kiki Walker/Jean Brooks, a performer who is looking for an edge over her competition on the nightclub circuit. Manning arrives in the opening scene with his latest scheme: he has rented a tame black leopard from a local and he wants Kiki to walk it on a leash in public as a publicity stunt. With some persuasion, she agrees. Kiki and her new "pet" waltz into the club in the middle of her rival performer Clo-Clo's act. In retaliation, Clo-Clo intentionally startles the edgy cat and it gets off its leash and flees into the night. As the hunt for the escaped animal carries on, young Theresa Delgado, is shooed out the door by her mother to fetch cornmeal for her father's dinner, despite the girl's fears that the leopard might attack. Her worst nightmare comes true.
With Kiki and Manning absolved of responsibility by the police chief, a posse is formed to continue the hunt for the cat. Manning joins the search and meets Galbraith/James Ball, a former professor of zoology who is now curator of the local museum. Meanwhile, Consuelo Contreras, a beautiful young upper-class girl, heads out ostensibly to pay a visit to her father's grave. In fact, she has a clandestine meeting with her boyfriend planned. She arrives at the cemetery gates near closing time and promises not to stay too long. Inside, she cannot find her boyfriend Raoul at their usual rendezvous location and decides to sit and wait a bit. When she realizes it is getting dark, it is too late. The gates have closed and she is trapped inside alone. Soon, she meets the same fate as Theresa Delgado.
The next morning at the crime scene, Manning does not like what he sees and begins to wonder if a man, not a cat, is behind this second death. The killer seems to be using a cat's claw to mask his crimes and misdirect police. Manning talks his theory over with the chief of police and his new friend Galbraith but nobody finds it compelling. Clo-Clo, Kiki's rival performer is the next victim. At the club that evening, she meets a rich gentleman who gives her $100 but she loses it on the way home and goes back into the dark streets to retrace her steps. The next day, examining Clo-Clo's body, Manning is convinced his theory is correct. A series of clues leads him to suspect Galbraith. He and Kiki concoct a plan to flush out the murderer. She risks her life to lure Galbraith into attacking her while Manning lies in wait with Raoul. When caught, Galbraith admits his crimes but claims that he does not know how to control his strange impulse to kill. Raoul shoots him before he can say anymore.
"In the darkness, the eyes full of fear"
Val Lewton told a story of how he went from his position as assistant to David Selznick to producer of horror films at RKO. "Someone told them I had written horrible novels, they mistook the word 'horrible' for 'horror' and I got the job", he said. The anecdote, true or not, stands as a wonderful testament to his self-deprecating sense of humor as well as his modesty.3 The real story is surely that he was one of the most promising young producers in Hollywood, well known to RKO, and a prime candidate for the position. It also points to a very significant aspect of his background. Between 1923 and about 1935, in addition to work in journalism and film, Lewton was a prolific and quite successful writer. He published at least ten works of fiction, six of non-fiction and a book of verse. As well, he estimated that he had contributed at least 100 short pieces (fiction and non-fiction) to various magazines during the period. One of his novels, No Bed of Her Own (1932), received notice at the time as the first serious work of fiction to deal with the depression in America.4
Lewton had a voracious appetite for literature to go along with a photographic memory and, beginning at an early age, he would employ the two to spin tales to whoever would listen. This skill for storytelling combined with economic circumstances led to his taking on more writing assignments than most people could handle. He even turned out two pornographic novels for the 42nd Street crowd. That this literate, Columbia University-educated son of an upper-middle class family could write poetry and history one week, and pulp novels and porn the next, indicates a tolerance of the extremes of popular culture that served him well with RKO. While someone else may have turned up their nose at the position and either rejected it, or produced the films with the kind of hatred for the material that results in forgettable work, Lewton instead elevated what in 1942 was an embarrassing "low" genre into art.
By the beginning of the 1940's, the major studios' flirtation with big budget horror was over and only Universal was still producing the films with any regularity at all. Poverty Row production houses continued to rely on the horror formula and churned out most of what was now an established but poorly regarded genre. Lewton's task was simple then. Nobody would care about the quality of the films as long as he made them competently and efficiently. Yet, he saw a greater potential in the horror film and he set about getting it there. Around him, he collected a small group of respected colleagues (director Tourneur, editor Mark Robson, writers Ardel Wray and De Witt Bodeen, cinematographer Nick Musuraca) and consciously got to work at making a different kind of horror film.
From the very beginning, Lewton turned everywhere for source material. Drawing on his love for and knowledge of art, literature, and history, he used novels, short stories, poetry, painting, and music to enrich the series that began with Cat People in 1942. We know that among his first ideas for Cat People (he was given only the title by the studio) was to use a short story by the horror writer Algernon Blackwood. He eventually discarded the idea in favour of an original tale but the pattern of turning to literature and art continued. I Walked with a Zombie (1943) loosely retells Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre set in the unique milieu of Haiti's indigenous Vodoun religion (treated with the utmost respect after careful study by the unit). The Seventh Victim (1943) although an original story, employs references to John Donne and Dante. Isle of the Dead (1945) is inspired by an Arnold Boecklin painting of the same name as well as "The Premature Burial" by Poe; The Body Snatcher (1945), from the Stevenson story based on the notorious real-life grave robbers Burke and Hare; Bedlam (1946) from a painting and other works by the artist William Hogarth. This aspect of the Lewton cycle gives the films a distinctiveness and flavour of authenticity that positively shines next to their competition for horror audiences of the early 1940's.
Perhaps amidst all this sophisticated historical material, a contemporary suspense novelist like Woolrich, known for his work in pulp magazines, seems not to warrant a second glance. Maybe someone higher up forced this "junk" on Lewton and his team? Certainly, neither Joel Siegel nor Edmund Bansak, writing extensive books on Lewton's films, gives The Leopard Man much attention.5 The latter spends a lot of time detailing the holes and implausible situations in the plot. Siegel, meanwhile, dismisses the film as "a straight-forward mystery thriller" with "a thin nasty-minded story" and finally, "little more than an exercise in sadistic voyeurism". He seems incapable of recognizing the author's contribution to the work. While noting that the film is "unconventionally structured", he claims the source novel "was probably too conventional to please Lewton and Tourneur…and lacking the kind of suspense they favoured…the Woolrich material hardly merits the sophisticated Lewton narrative technique". To me, this statement is outrageous. Nobody who has read Black Alibi could ever come to this conclusion. The book is a masterly exercise in the orchestration of tension and suspense. Its unusual structure is punctuated with passages of breathtaking menace and dark poetry. Black Alibi fits perfectly into the pattern of sources drawn upon by the unit.
Far from being too sophisticated to appreciate Woolrich, Lewton surely identified deeply with the author. Besides the fact that they were both young writers who wound up writing genre fiction to eke out a living, Lewton and Woolrich had other things in common. They were the same age, born exactly six months apart (Woolrich in December 1903, Lewton the following May). Both were of East European heritage, both grew up estranged from their fathers, and both attended Columbia University at the same time. It is not hard to picture them sitting next to each other in an English class discussing Scott Fitzgerald's latest novel and their dreams of following in his footsteps. What seems likely, if nothing else, is that Lewton knew of Woolrich's work, even if the decision to adapt Black Alibi was not his own. Siegel only mentions that the studio insisted on a name change to The Leopard Man. Woolrich's biographer notes that the movie rights to Black Alibi were sold within months of its publication or, in other words, by the summer of 1942, just after Lewton joined RKO.
Both the distinctive narrative structure and the orchestration of suspense found in The Leopard Man owe almost everything to the words Woolrich wrote. It is incredible to read Black Alibi and discover that Lewton and Tourneur's most powerful sequences, the three "night walks" ending in death, are described in detail in the novel, sometimes just as they've been shot. In fact, the moment always mentioned in descriptions of the film, Theresa Delgado's demise suggested with chilling economy by simply showing her blood trickle in underneath the door, is not the filmmakers' at all. Perhaps the ultimate example for horror aficionados of Lewton's less-is-more approach to screen terror appears exactly as Woolrich wrote it. Histories of the horror film continually honour Lewton's unit for pioneering a completely new kind of horror film: the less-is-more, psychological approach to terror. But, within The Leopard Man, Woolrich's writing deserves as much credit for the film's technique as Tourneur's eye and Lewton's governing hand.
Far less recognized than their invention of the subtle chiller-thriller, however, is the group's early development of horror's most famous modern subgenre, the slasher film. For the combination of Woolrich's unique narrative structure and the unit's decision to preserve it during adaptation resulted in RKO unwittingly producing a prototype for a cycle that would terrorize teens around the world some 35 years later. Many of the key ingredients are here: the repetition of stalking sequences, the killer whose identity remains hidden, the beautiful young victim (usually female), and the violent death. Significantly, the film predates by two decades Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), Michael Powell's Peeping Tom (1960), and Mario Bava's Sei donne per l'assassino (aka Blood and Black Lace, 1964)6, the examples almost every expert on the slasher film lists as the genre's forebears. Someone needs to rewrite the history books.
Because we are so used to the formula today, it is easy to miss what must have been shocking to audiences in 1943. How many people could have anticipated that the film would kill off young Theresa Delgado, after having spent time to sketch her character so sympathetically? It even tricks us into thinking she is safe when she makes it through the dark tunnel the first time, only to have her encounter the leopard on the way back. Even if they were able to recover from this terrible shock, the audience would now settle into what appears to be a traditional murder mystery. The amateur detectives, Jerry and Kiki, with the help of Dr. Galbraith, would go through the motions and solve the case. When introduced to Consuelo on the morning of her birthday, they would sense the narrative taking an odd turn, but with the time spent developing her character, it must have been stunning to see her die like Theresa. A killer who repeated his crime over and over until he was caught was a rare movie villain in 1943. The cemetery attack, minus today's slasher frame-of-reference, would be a terrifying jolt, leaving viewers wondering what they had got themselves into. Long before Hitchcock killed off Marion in Psycho, the Lewton team, following Cornell Woolrich's lead, set convention and audience expectation on its head in The Leopard Man.
It is because of this focus on the victims that the film stands out from so many of its stalk-and-slash brethren to follow. It gives us a chance to see what the slasher film might have been, had it taken a different path. We have to credit Woolrich with this approach, for it seems to have been his intention in Black Alibi to write a story that puts its reader in close identification with those doomed by the novel's dark menace. While the book is designed on the one hand as a very calculated exercise in tension and terror, on the other it is structured very much as a series of character sketches of each of its female victims. Lewton's faithful adaptation then presents us with a rare kind of psycho film, one that spends time and effort humanizing its victims. They are not there just to serve as objects of violence. Instead, there is time to get to know a little about each of these women: Theresa Delgado, Consuelo Contreras, and Clo-Clo. The novel, in fact, has two more: Sally O'Keefe and Marjorie King from a fourth attack left out of the film, and this last pair is the real key to Woolrich's vision.
Near the end of Black Alibi, Sally survives an attack by the killer but watches her friend Marjorie become his latest victim. The next day, Manning goes to her and asks her help in his plan to catch the madman. The book saves its most powerful writing for this penultimate chapter, as Sally risks her life to lure and capture the killer. "A very brave girl. A girl who has more courage than you or I have any right to expect any girl to have," as Manning describes her. Both a brilliant exercise in suspense and a moving, celebratory portrait of a woman's strength in the face of tragedy, this chapter complicates any simple accusation that the violence the story directs at its female victims is cheap and exploitative. While the bravery of Sally O'Keefe doesn't quite survive the translation to the screen, where Kiki's similar actions in the final moments get lost in the rush to tie up the storyline, the film still seems to have its heart in the right place. Unlike so many stalker films that follow it, here is a thriller that in the end is more interested in its victims as persons than it is in the psychosis of its killer, his method of murder, or his hunt and capture by the authorities.
Yet, The Leopard Man for all its innovation leaves me unsatisfied. I can trace this feeling to the disjuncture between the theme it wants to express and its representation of a modern serial killer. Here is where poetry and ideology inevitably entangle in a swiftly made 66-minute low-budget thriller. The Lewton team wants to convey a sense of doom and fate hanging over the town and its people, preserving the dark premise of Woolrich's novel. To do so, it must carry out a delicate dance with realism. The victims, the setting, and the killer need to be true-to-life in order to capture just the right sense of modern terror, but the film cannot address what kind of person Galbraith might really be. It reminds us that these monsters, soon called serial killers, really do exist; but the wellspring of their monstrosity is unfathomable. They are just evil, plain and simple.
In Lewton and Tourneur's Cat People, Dr. Louis Judd (played by Tom Conway) serves as a voice of reason and medical science brought in to cure Irena's fears that she will turn into a cat. In their first session together, he tells her that her strange beliefs are likely the result of a repressed memory from childhood, "a canker in the mind" he calls it. He exudes total confidence in his ability to cure her. Of course, things hardly go as planned, but this scene raises an important question about The Leopard Man: Where is Dr. Judd when we need him!? After all, despite his untimely demise at the hands of Irena at the end of the story, Lewton later revived the character for an appearance in The Seventh Victim when the script called for another psychiatrist. In fact, psychoanalysis was everywhere in Hollywood movies by 1943, so much so that the absence of a clinical voice has to have been a conscious decision on the part of the Lewton team7. In sequences mainly added to Woolrich's story by the filmmakers, characters instead struggle to find words and ideas to explain why a man might commit such a crime.
And in a later scene,
The terrible irony is that the person taking the place of the psychoanalyst in this conversation is himself the killer. Moreover, he will later confess that he does not know why he kills, why the urge comes over him. Dr. Judd's "a canker in the mind" situated within the discourse of repressed memories and childhood trauma becomes "a kink in the brain", "strange pleasure" with no contextualization or explanation at all. A damaged human psyche with a cause and a cure becomes the modern psychopath, a terrifying sexual predator whose motives are inscrutable, and whose crimes are frighteningly unpredictable, unexplainable and therefore uncontrollable.
Why the absence of a medical opinion in the film? There are two ways to answer this. One, the killer's inexplicable urges are part of the film's theme of doomed fortune. At the same time, by effacing the real psychosexual explanation for Galbraith's murders, the narrative can sidestep the social issues raised by the psychopath in the 1940's. I will deal with these one at a time.
"We know little about the forces that move us"
While crime, mystery and horror films were often lumped together in the 1930's and 40's, from today's perspective The Leopard Man looks like the first true horror/noir hybrid. Others make the case for Cat People, which does share some themes and stylistic elements with film noir, and of course the same production team. Yet, only The Leopard Man combines a crime thriller (the genre of most noir films) with so many elements of horror. Moreover, it boasts unbeatable credentials in its source material. For if ever there were crowned a "king of film noir", it would have to be Cornell Woolrich. The list of his stories and novels adapted to film, television and radio in 1940's and 1950's is something to behold. I doubt there is any other person with more fingerprints on the cycle of post-war thrillers we know today as noir. The themes and subjects of all his work (death, fate, loneliness, murder, suspense, shadows, desperate men, dangerous women, and dark streets) read like a summary of the genre.
Perhaps the defining hallmark of noir is its tone of bleak fatalism. It is through this tone, and its expression in the theme of doomed fortune, that we best see Woolrich's contribution to The Leopard Man. Devilishly, the film puts its theme in the mouth of its killer. As Manning expresses concern about the danger of the escaped leopard, Galbraith responds:
The same sentiment is repeated at the film's conclusion by Manning himself. In between, we see three women die, a respected member of the community revealed as a serial killer, and a young man imprisoned for his murder. Why do these things happen? If we look to the pattern of the murders, we sense that some unspeakable force hangs over the entire town, orchestrating events.
The dancer Clo-Clo is the first character introduced to us in the film. We hear her castanets, a motif that runs throughout the film, and we see them provoke an angry reaction from her rival, Kiki. From this point on until she meets her end, Clo-Clo will touch the lives of each of the characters in the film, carrying doom to all who cross her path. Her actions set the leopard loose in the first place, as she frightens it off Kiki's leash. She greets Theresa on the street just before the girl leaves for the store. She has an encounter with the Contreras family's servant girl on the day Consuelo dies. The film uses Clo-Clo narratively to connect all the victims and their stories but she also seems to curse them by her presence. Thematically, she is a doomed character, as her friend the fortune teller knows full well, and she brings misfortune to all those who encounter her. But why Clo-Clo? She is actually a very likable and positive character. We must remember Galbraith's lines: "We know little about the forces that move the world around us". It is not our place to ask why, and the answers are not available to us. The more innocent the victim, the more powerful the theme of doomed fortune becomes.
It is important to see that the use of fate in The Leopard Man is a legitimate dramatic device, based on a longstanding moral conception of human and divine justice. Personified as a feminine deity in late Roman culture, the mysterious ways of Lady Fortune, remained a central concern of philosophy, literature, and visual art throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. With her wheel, upon which the rich and powerful balanced on top and the downtrodden dwelled below, she reminded all of society that both happiness and sadness were only temporary. At her whim, a gentle spin sent those on top crashing down, exchanging places suddenly with the poor and powerless. Theologians debated her nature. Church fathers agonized over the persistence of her cult following. Dante gave her a special place in the heavens in the Inferno, while Calvin dismissed her as a misunderstanding of Divine Providence. She appeared throughout Elizabethan and Baroque tragedy, and remained an influence into the 19th century. Finding a traditional theme like this in a low-budget horror film might seem like a stretch under any other circumstance, but we are dealing with Val Lewton here.
Of course, the idea of Fortune blindly controlling our fate does not sit well in modern times. It is a deeply religious conception of life, far out of step with our whole worldview today. We believe strongly that each individual makes his or her own destiny. Choice, responsibility, material cause and effect: the modern world operates, at least ideally, with transparency. In a narrative, an appeal to a predestined order is easily misunderstood as a cheap means of explaining away unexpected events, or as a way to give a "thin nasty-minded story" an illusion of depth. In this case, however, the sense of tragedy is genuine. It comes directly from Woolrich's universe. Nobody had a darker sensibility and a more fatalistic view of existence than Cornell Woolrich. Francis Nevins, his biographer, returns repeatedly to a moment in the author's youth that crystallizes his outlook. In Woolrich's own words, it went like this: "One night when I was eleven and, huddling over my own knees, looked up at the low-hanging stars of the Valley of Anahuac, and knew I would surely die finally, or something worse."9 The sadness and the darkness of these words haunt every sentence he ever wrote, and they cast a long shadow over the world of The Leopard Man as well.
In the end, however, by offering fate as an explanation for the events of the film, including the psyche of the killer, the film avoids addressing the social psychology of violent crime and sexual predators. Although it has no obligation to do so, its subject and its representations implicate it in the discourse anyway. I want to turn, finally, to a look at gender and ideology, and the historical context of the psychopath in American society.
"What sort of man would kill like a leopard?"
For a number of years, especially since the end of the First World War, the Victorian ideal of female purity had been eroding. Women who were once desexualized and confined to the domestic sphere were now circulating in the public spaces of the modern city: working, playing, dressing in comparatively revealing modern fashions, and generally rewriting what it meant to be a woman. At the same time, the meaning of manhood was undergoing its own transformations. The 19th century's emphasis on character, when interior values of honesty, integrity, and self-made success were most important, had begun to shift to an emphasis on appearance and attitude.11 The term "hard-boiled", used to describe a certain kind of tough male detective emerged at this time (and would be a key ingredient in film noir). In these ways, American society adjusted its understanding of female and male sex roles and traditional notions of masculinity and femininity. In the 1930's, the onset of the Great Depression added another factor, as many men found themselves out of work, unable to be the breadwinner for their family. It is in this context that the psychopath, previously a little-used clinical term came to be associated with a dangerous, specifically male, sexual deviant.
The boundaries drawn by the new category of "sexual psychopath" were used to regulate the definition of "normal" masculinity in a time of upheaval and crisis. They positioned the male subject according to his perceived gender traits: a sex fiend was a man with too much masculinity, and a homosexual was a man with not enough. The associated moral panic then presented homosexuals as dangers to children while the sex fiend preyed on women alone or unaccompanied in the city. Freedman interprets these warnings in the context of the changing sex roles during the period. In this way, public fear was as much about the control of women as it was about any real threat to them. Society told women that they were at risk of attack if they are out alone in public. At the same time, it warned of the constant peril to their children of attack and/or recruitment by homosexuals. Naturally, safety was best achieved if women remained at home, supervised the kids, and accepted their domestic role rather than continue their disruptive breach of the public sphere.
As an occasional gruesome news story and as a general social panic, the phenomenon of the violent sex predator undoubtedly appealed to Cornell Woolrich's dark imagination. How would he integrate this into his world of noir fiction? In Black Alibi, with its metaphysical approach to evil, we never learn anything about the killer's life, background, motives or actions. He just appears, kills and sinks back into the night, until the final chapter reveals his identity. He turns out to be the Chief of Police, a character Manning interacted with throughout the story and who appeared completely normal all along. The Lewton unit's adaptation chooses to flesh out the killer's character some more. Galbraith is also an esteemed member of his community, a former professor, now the museum curator. This aspect of their characters is worth noting. In both M and Shadow of a Doubt, the murderer was a more typical outsider to the community.12 By bringing the killer closer to home, the film forces us to rethink standard histories. Freedman, for example, leaves us with the impression that it would not be possible for audiences in the 1940s to imagine a sexual psychopath as we see him today, as someone seemingly very normal, the so-called "guy next door". This frightening picture is generally thought to have emerged later.13 But here, the Lewton approach to everyday horror, mixed with Woolrich's noir sensibility, leads the film in a startling direction. At a time when America was told to direct their fear at outsiders, transients, and "perverts", The Leopard Man warns that sexual psychopaths could be just about anyone around you.
What the film does not address is why a man like Galbraith does what he does; or, more accurately, I would suggest that it simply cannot address this. For, the very ideological apparatus that lay behind the sex crime panic also animates the generic codes of the horror film's production and reception, especially in this classical period. An answer to why men attack women and the reasons behind the "sexual psychopath scare" of the 1940's are both found at the intersections of gender, power, and fear. A horror film like The Leopard Man can't directly address why psychos kill because, as a horror film, it is constructed upon the very same ideology of gender that must be questioned to find the answer. Only a deconstructive horror film could perform this analysis, and in the genre's classical period this can not be expected.
The film establishes its motif of the woman's scream in the opening scene. Manning enters Kiki's dressing room with the leopard on its leash. The cigarette girl and Kiki each let out a scream and Kiki even climbs onto a chair in a classic display of fear. Manning, in turn, reassures her that the cat is not harmful and talks her into using it in her act. In its first five mintues, the film has economically established classical horror's traditional gender roles: women show fear; men act cool and reassure them that they are safe. Later, the design of each of the three "night walks" is punctuated by a look of fear, a scream, and a death. As Berenstein points out, these two elements, the woman's scream and her look of fear at an off-screen terror, were staples of the horror film from its earliest years. The Lewton team is employing an easily identifiable generic signifier here and the way it is implicated in Galbraith's madness invites an ideological reading of the film's killer. For this, a closer look at Galbraith's character is needed.
Our first opportunity to learn about him is in the nightclub the day after the Delgado attack. Jerry invites Kiki to come along for a drink with Galbraith before she goes on stage. In what is otherwise a rather casual encounter, our killer's body language and speech suggest he feels uncomfortable around women. He fiddles with his pipe and makes cryptic comments. He seems in awe of Kiki's modest celebrity. The best line in this scene is easily misunderstood as poor writing when it is actually very calculated. As Kiki expresses concern about a poor reception from the crowd, Galbraith tells her, "I'm sure if you are as talented as you are beautiful, Ms. Walker, you'll have nothing to worry about." She politely thanks him but you can almost sense her and Manning giggling under their breath. Galbraith simply does not know how to talk to women. Instead, he spouts lines from a romance novel. With claims that James Bell does not make a very convincing serial killer, I disagree completely. In this scene, the actor conveys just the right mix awkwardness, harmlessness and mystery, anticipating portrayals like Anthony Perkins's Norman Bates and Robert Deniro's Travis Bickle that will follow it.
To work, however, this scene needs a counterpart later in the film. It is important that we see Galbraith speak to men with confidence and control because it will help emphasize his difficulty relating specifically to women. The scene in which Manning and Charlie How-Come, the naïve owner of the escaped leopard, visit Galbraith at the museum does just this. Manning begins by running his theory of a human killer past the professor. Their discussion, at first friendly, begins to take on a hint of menace, even cruelty. We can see him take pleasure in his power and authority over both men, control which derives principally from the confident way he uses words. In contrast to the scene with Kiki, Galbraith's command of language here allows him to both put Manning off his trail and even convince the two that Charlie may have committed the murders while he was drunk! He insists he's just playing a game of whodunit, but we get to see here another side of our killer. Strong and confident in his own element, he only loses his power in the presence of a beautiful or desirable woman.
Finally, on the last night of Clo-Clo's life, she goes to the nightclub and meets an older gentleman (named Brunton in the film's screenplay and in the novel). He buys her a drink and the ensuing scene between them is a wonderful game of cat-and-mouse as the two flirt and laugh. The gentleman, who never appears again, exists on the narrative level simply to provide Clo-Clo with the $100 bill she will lose on her way home. Venturing back out into the night to retrieve it will cost her her life. Yet, this scene also echoes the one between Kiki and Galbraith mentioned above. Brunton represents a striking contrast to the tongue-tied killer in the way he relates to women. Here is a man who is not threatened or intimidated by the beautiful Clo-Clo's sexuality. He charms her, makes her laugh and shows an interest in her beyond her looks. She in turn seems genuinely attracted by his approach. We are left with a picture of positive male-female relations, a perfect date. Appropriately, the scene is the only light moment in the entire film. If only Galbraith could act this way with Kiki, he might not find himself stammering a confession in these final words – words that vividly tie fear to notions of gender and power.
He may not understand why he is attracted to the sight of fear in a woman's eyes and the sound of her scream but, surely, we can.
1 Cornell Woolrich. Black Alibi. New York: Ballantyne Books, 1982. This is the most recent paperback edition. The original hardcover was published by Simon & Schuster in April, 1942. (return)
2 Chris Fujiwara. Jacques Tourneur: The Cinema of Nightfall. Jefferson, N.C./London: McFarland, 1998. (return)
3 This anecdote appears in Manny Farber's tribute to Lewton upon the producer's death. See Manny Farber. "Val Lewton and the School of Shudders" in Roy Huss and T.J. Ross eds., Focus on the Horror Film. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1972. (return)
4 Kingly Books republished No Bed of Her Own in 2006. (return)
5 See Joel E. Seigel. Val Lewton: The Reality of Terror. London: Secker and Warburg, 1972, and Edmund G. Bansak. Fearing the Dark: The Val Lewton Career. Jefferson, NC: MacFarland, 1995. (return)
6 Oddly enough, a young Bava was the director of photography on one of Tourneur's last features, La Battaglia di maratona (1959). Might the two have discussed The Leopard Man on the set five years before Bava invented the Italian slasher genre, the giallo? (return)
7 On the portrayal of psychoanalysts in cinema, see Krin Gabbard and Glen O. Gabbard. Psychiatry and the Cinema. Chicago/London: The University of Chicago Press, 1987. (return)
8 Martha Nochimson. "Val Lewton at RKO: The Social Dimensions of Horror". Cineaste. Vol. 31, No. 4 (Fall 2006), pp 9-17. (return)
9 Francis M. Nevins, Jr. Cornell Woolrich: First You Dream, and Then You Die. New York: The Mysterious Press, 1988, pp. 8. (return)
10 Estelle B. Freedman, "'Uncontrolled Desires': The Response to the Sexual Psychopath, 1920-1960". The Journal of American History, Vol. 74, No.1 (Jun., 1987), pp. 83. (return)
11 See, for example, Tom Pendergast, Creating the Modern Man: American Magazines and Consumer Culture 1900-1950. Columbia/London: University of Missouri Press, 2000. (return)
12 Although in Shadow, Hitchcock blurs this distinction by making him a member of the extended family. (return)
13 The "guy next door" phenomenon is also known as the "mask of sanity". This term comes from a pioneering work of psychiatry published in 1940 by Dr. Henry Cleckly. The notion, thus, was just emerging but far from accepted at this time. See http://www.cassiopaea.com/cassiopaea/psychopath.htm (return)
14 Rhona J. Berenstein. Attack of the Leading Ladies: Gender, Sexuality, and Spectatorship in Classic Horror Cinema. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996. Berenstein goes on to argue that the actual psychology of reception is much less straightforward than this, but the basic assumption, embedded in the films, their publicity, and their critical reception, holds true. (return)
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Saturday, October 14, 2006
Waxing Poetic with Frank Dietz
Frank has published several booklet collections of his caricatures, which are available for browsing and purchase at his website, and if you follow that link, I guarantee that you'll see something that will cause you to laugh your head off. Frank's caricatures are not just hilarious because they look funny; they appeal specifically to the film buff's experience and memory of a movie, a scene, a performance. As I once told Frank about one of his caricatures, after pulling my jaw and the rest of myself off the floor, he has the ability to instill into his work not only what an actor is thinking about the movie he's in, but how much he's being paid to be in it.
At this year's Wonderfest, I had opportunities to talk with Frank and found him in that position all artists reach sooner or later, where he was chomping at the bit to move past caricature (which now comes easily to him) into a more challenging realm. For Frank, that beckoning challenge is the world of legitimate portraiture. He had made steps in this direction by creating exclusively for Wonderfest a dozen or so charcoal portraits of the great stars and performances of classic movie horror. He was nervous about putting them on public display the next day, fretful that he might have priced them too high ("I've got to at least cover the cost of materials," he reasoned), but by the time I reached the dealers' room the next morning, all but a couple had been sold -- and Frank was beaming. He'd made his breakthrough. By the end of the day, I'm sure they were all gone and he may have received commissions for more.
Tonight, he's going to make another breakthrough. Tonight, Frank Dietz becomes the subject of a solo exhibit at the Wax Poetic Gallery (their 7th Annual Halloween show) at 3208 West Magnolia Blvd. in Burbank, California, which is going to feature not only his caricatures, pencil drawings, and new charcoal portraits, but -- something new for Frank -- original oil paintings as well. The event, which promises lots of music, refreshments, and guest celebs (not to mention first crack at purchasing the highly collectable pieces on exhibition), will be from 8:00 to 11:00 pm. Call 818-843-9469 for more details.
If you're in the area, don't miss it.
Friday, October 13, 2006
T.G.I. Friday the 13th
A lot of new doors opened for me this past week, and I look forward to sharing some happy news about a number of new projects in the coming weeks, once everything is in writing.
Finally, there is sad news from Rome announcing the death of film director Gillo Pontecorvo at age 86. A political filmmaker, Pontecorvo was best-known for his riveting and truly neorealistic THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS (1966, featuring one of the great Ennio Morricone scores) and the Marlon Brando-starring BURN! (1969), a study of the profitability of creating wars. In one of the more inspired jokes in John Landis' film THE STUPIDS (1996), Pontecorvo was one of several "intellectual" directors who gamely agreed to appear in bit parts; the others included Costa-Gavras, David Cronenberg, and Atom Egoyan.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
She's A Mae Nak
2005, Tartan Asian Extreme, DD-2.0 & 5.1/DTS 5.1/MA/16:9/LB/ST/+, $22.98, 105m 5s, DVD-1
This new horror film from Thailand has the distinction of having been scripted and directed by an English cinematographer, Mark Duffield (KISS KISS BANG BANG, BUTTERFLY MAN). Based on a Thai legend previously filmed more than twenty times, it's the story of a young engaged couple, Mak and Nak, whose lifelong devotion to one another mirrors the eternal love of another Mak and Nak who lived a century earlier. Taken away from his wife shortly after their marriage by war duties, the first Mak returned home to find Nak the mother of his child; they lived happily ever after... until their neighbors confided to Mak that Nak had died during his absence, while pregnant, and that he was being deceived by her ghost. The ghost wreaked its vengeance against the villagers for destroying her last chance at happiness, and her mortal remains were exhumed by monks who silenced her by removing a piece of her skull, which they engraved and formed into a protective amulet for Mak. A century later, the new Mak finds the amulet in an antiques shop and gives it to Nak as a wedding gift. When Mak suffers an accident and falls into a coma, the amulet becomes an device through which Nak receives a desperate psychic message from her husband: "Find Mae Nak!" Only by returning the medallion piece to Nak's buried remains can Mak be freed from her thrall.
Duffield's film is being well-received by some mainstream reviewers, but experienced genre buffs are sure to see it for what it is: an overlong, utterly unoriginal fusion of contemporary J-horror tropes and 1970s possession excess. Opening with a creepy spoken introduction by Nak's elderly aunt (recalling Katherine Emery's narration of THE MAZE, 1953), it gives us the overused J-Horror plot of a dark-haired ghost with a grudge, then throws in elements of PATRICK (a comatose man channelling destructive psychic energy), DON'T LOOK NOW (the blind "seer"), THE OMEN (a series of grisly showy deaths, including one involving a falling sheet of glass that's the most interesting I've seen since the opening of DEATH SHIP), THE EXORCIST (levitation, exorcism), and so on. There's a Cheech and Chong-like pair of cat burglars out of Martin Scorsese's AFTER HOURS, and the cliché-o-meter runs amok with medicine chest mirror scares and shots of Mak jolting out of nightmares in a cold sweat. To Western sensibilities, the performances are too cloying, too wholesome to be believed (when Mak is told the amulet will bring him good luck, he beams as though he's won the national lottery), and the storyline is too scattered and rambling to hold together, the off-the-rails excess of the final half hour becoming laughable. When was the last time you saw wire-work involved in an operating room sequence?
Making this mediocre film even less attractive -- and this is particularly surprising for a film directed by a cinematographer -- the picture quality is overly dark and muted, with mostly ugly colors and some deliberately blooming whites. Tartan's disc offers three sound options, all in the original Thai language, one in Dolby 2.0 and two 5.1 options in DD or DTS. The two five-channel options are quite active and functional in context, but a sampling of individual moments reveals a lot of ambient "haunted house"-type sounds that rarely let up. The extras include a very dry, play-by-play-reliant audio commentary by Duffield, which is nevertheless informative and useful toward understanding why this love story shies away from depictions of kissing. A 65m 52s video diary of the film's production takes us on-set and finds almost everyone speaking perfect English. Viewers with an obsessive interest in Thai filmmaking procedures may find this material of value, but for the rest of us, the feature itself doesn't really warrant any more of our time than has already been wasted.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Greetings from The Maze
Hello. My name is Katherine Emery.
Perhaps you remember me as Mrs. Mary St. Aubyn in Val Lewton's chilling ISLE OF THE DEAD, as Mrs. Willis in John Brahm's THE LOCKET, or as the appropriately termed "Grim Nurse" in Lewis Milestone's ARCH OF TRIUMPH. But those who have seen William Cameron Menzies' 3-D classic THE MAZE will certainly remember me as the film's matronly narrator, Edith Murray.
I don't actually open the picture as everyone seems to remember, but apparently something about the way I walked in three-dimensions from a distance into closeup -- all the while looking straight ahead, straight into your eyes -- registered in the minds of young children as even more frightening than the Frog-thing whom Mr. Menzies unveiled in the final reel! I understand that the new Thai horror film GHOST OF MAE NAK may even pay a kind of homage to my scene in THE MAZE. I personally doubt it, but Mr. Lucas tells me that it has an opening "in my tradition," whatever that means.
Who can say why children found me frightening? I tried my best to appear friendly and approachable. Perhaps I reminded them of a stern teacher or someone who once pulled their teeth. If you happen to be one of those children I sent scurrying under their theater seat, back in the day, all I can say is... BOO!
Anyway, I have been summoned from the Beyond by your blogger for the simple reason that I happened to be born one hundred years ago today. He has a thing about centenaries that I can't pretend to understand, but I thank him and the rest of you for remembering me.
One hundred years ago... I suppose that was the beginning. It happened in Birmingham, Alabama, and it started the fantastic chain of events that led to my experience in THE MAZE. My niece Kitty and I were with a group of friends in a delightful little café in Cannes, on the French Riviera. It was an engagement party...
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
BRIGHTON ROCK's Wild English Rose
For reasons unknown to me, BRIGHTON ROCK is one of those high-profile British films that has always been next to impossible to see here in America. It was given a US theatrical release under the title YOUNG SCARFACE, but it has disappeared since. Amazon.com assures me that there was a VHS release from Movies Unlimited, now out-of-print, but isn't Movies Unlimited a store rather than a video label? I've never known the film to appear on television, and I didn't get around to seeing it for the first time until just a couple of years ago, when a friend sent me a darkish dub made from a copy in a Los Angeles video store's private collection.
As a longtime admirer of Greene's novel (still one of the scariest things I've ever read), I found the movie to be uncannily successful in all departments: Richard Attenborough is the very image of Pinky Brown, the soft-voiced, sadistic ringleader of a criminal gang (it wouldn't surprise me if he based Pinkie's speech patterns on those of fellow British actor Philip Stone, familiar from later Stanley Kubrick films); Hermione Baddeley is note-perfect as Ida Arnold, a good-hearted goodtime gal who decides to investigate the disappearance of an attentive man she met at Brighton Rock, which she links to a mob hit; Harcourt Williams is unforgettable as the alcoholic mob lawyer Prewitt; Nigel Stock (THE LOST CONTINENT) and William Hartnell (a future DOCTOR WHO) are vivid as Pinky's associates; and then there is Carol Marsh, who is not the Rose I pictured while reading the novel, but I'll give the filmmakers this: such were the limits of my imagination. Were I to read the novel again, I doubt I could keep the memory of Marsh's face, smile, or jittery, eager-to-please mannerisms at bay for very long.
Hers is a mesmerizing and ultimately heartbreaking performance, much of which is wrapped up in her demure yet vaguely animalistic presence. For all of Rose's sweetness, it's nigh impossible not to see the wicked quality that prompted Terence Fisher to cast Marsh as Lucy. She is like an English rose with thorns gathering in her brows. Rose is a simple, pure-hearted girl whose lack of complication is both her virtue and her downfall. Marsh makes us believe in Rose as a small town girl, honest and open to a fault, who has fled a no longer tenable home life (involving, we sense, physical and perhaps sexual abuse) to seek her fortune in the big city, naturally starting at the bottom -- as a waitress. She's eager to find love and protection to replace the family she's lost, but the chance intervention of a ten-pound contest ticket into her life damns her to marry the biggest little monster on the midway. Rose has seen too much, knows who killed the man in the haunted house ride on Palace Pier, and that's why Pinky wants to tie the knot -- right around her throat -- in the event she's ever called to testify against him. Already hurt by the world and desperate for protection, she is starry-eyed over her ice-cold suitor, and he flaunts his clammy loathing of her to the extent of recording a litany of hateful insults in an arcade sound booth, under cover of being a love letter, knowing that the poor girl doesn't own a phonograph to play the tell-tale acetate.
Another striking thing about BRIGHTON ROCK, when seen today, is the modernity of its construction. The story unfolds obliquely, standing close by the efforts of a secondary character (Alan Wheatley) to stay alive, who doesn't survive the first twenty minutes. The real protagonists are only glimpsed prior to this, but their presence is felt throughout -- Attenborough is potently introduced as a pair of hands flexing with alacrity whilst executing various cat's cradles with a web of string. The music by Hans May also feels quite contemporary in the way it pushes the action through orchestrated rhythm rather than melody, and it's hard to believe that this was only the second feature assignment for director of photography Harry Waxman, whose highly mobile, dramatic style qualifies BRIGHTON ROCK as a masterpiece of film noir cinematography and perhaps the greatest British example. Its place in the hiearchy of gangster films is unquestionable, and devotées of the genre will find interesting a sequence where Pinky meets with the Italian leader of local organized crime, a man named Colleoni (according to the IMDb, that is; his name sounded more to me like "Corleone").
The finale of Greene's novel, which found Rose returning home while looking forward to listening to Pinky's recorded "love letter" for the first time, is one of the great harrowing finales of 20th century English literature. Because it was considered too strong and downbeat for the film version, Greene worked with screenwriter Terrence Rattigan to conceive an acceptable alternative ending, which is arguably the movie's only fault. Viewers unfamiliar with the book may find it acceptable enough, but it's like a bad joke; the extent to which we've bonded with Marsh's touching performance is the only thing that keeps it from being risible. To laugh at her gullibility would be too much of a sin on our part.
My quest for a perfect-looking BRIGHTON ROCK has now been satisfied. It's now available on DVD as part of a fabulous four-disc PAL R2 import set called THE GRAHAM GREENE COLLECTION (Optimum Releasing). In addition, the set includes splendid presentations of THE THIRD MAN (1949, including two "Third Man" radio plays and a featurette on zither musician/composer Anton Karas); THE FALLEN IDOL (1948, a longtime PD eyesore in America, here restored to its original lustre); and THE HEART OF THE MATTER (1953, with its great performance by THE THIRD MAN's Trevor Howard). All of the discs originate from Studio Canal masters.
The standard ratio presentation of BRIGHTON ROCK is generally excellent, with thin black matte lines on the peripheries; the PAL to NTSC playback does result in a faint awareness of accelerated film speed, especially when the action becomes naturally accelerated. The DD-2.0 mono audio track manages to reduce background noise without overly clipping the dialogue. Some viewers may have trouble making sense of some of the dialogue, which includes Cockney rhyming slang as well as some dated hardboiled slang, both of which are further obscured by regional accents; but if you can make it through PERFORMANCE, it shouldn't be a problem.
Criterion's THE THIRD MAN remains the definitive presentation of that title, but the remaining three titles are well worth the cost of this set; if you haven't acquired the Criterion disc, it becomes that much more attractive. Enthusiastically recommended, especially for BRIGHTON ROCK and the rejuvenated THE FALLEN IDOL, THE GRAHAM GREENE COLLECTION is available domestically from Xploited Cinema, here.
Sunday, October 08, 2006
It Was One Year Ago Today...
My amigo Steve Bissette (whose blog MYRANT is linked over yonder to the right) deserves all credit for pointing me in this direction. Steve wasn't the first blogger I had read, but much as he helped to make the world of publishing seem more within Donna's and my grasp with the example of his TABOO, the literary, information and entertainment values of MYRANT showed me most appealingly what was possible within the form. I was impressed by the amount of writing he managed to generate on an almost daily basis, but also daunted by it; Steve assured me that the words stacked up quickly and easily, and that the process had become a pleasurable part of his morning routine. 365 days later, I can't say that he steered me wrong; I find writing Video WatchBlog very pleasurable and, to be perfectly candid, I often get a bigger kick out of clicking on "Publish Post" than i get from seeing my own work in print these days. The immediacy is intoxicating. The average blog takes about an hour or two to generate, and I usually write it either before going to bed, or immediately upon waking -- even before my first cup of coffee. So muchos gracias to Steve for being this blog's North Star (though Donna would like to re-train me to make our morning coffee first).
Looking back at my initial blog posting, on this 21st anniversary of the first VW column, it seems that I have broken just about every promise I initially made about this blog and what I expected it would become. I said I wasn't going to offer complete reviews of DVDs here, and I have. (I broke that promise almost immediately; it seems I can't do anything half-way.) I said I was going to use this blog to post information about new DVD releases, and I mostly haven't; I think it's a cheat to post press releases, though I don't mind sharing information that I personally find of interest. Most preposterously, I said I wasn't going to write long entries, and boy, have I ever! I did predict that there would be a certain amount of self-disclosure involved, and for better or worse, I've kept that promise. Looking over all the blogs I've generated, with their miscellaneous reviews, reports, cris de coeur, 100th birthday tributes, poems, and Outer Limericks, I think they represent a fairly accurate (and appropriately erratic) chart of my strengths and weaknesses, my emotional ups and downs, replete with moments of joy, playfulness and wistfulness. You've seen my love and hate for the blogging process, my reactions to the unexpected deaths of heroes and friends, and some odd moments of clarity prompting half-kept resolutions to turn my disordered life around. Many of you have written to let me know that you appreciate/enjoy/sympathize with what I've been up to here, and I am grateful for the feedback and camaraderie.
So what has this blog accomplished in its first year of existence? You, my readers, would probably be better postioned to answer to that question, but I can share with you some interesting basic facts. In the past 365 days, Video WatchBlog has racked up a total of 297 posts (including this one), while the Bava Book Update blog can claim an additional 29. (I've also written a couple that were never posted, and had to rewrite from scratch a few that were obliterated by random Blogger malfunctions.) My goal, at least over the last few weeks, has been to top 300 posts at this blog alone, but even with daily (and sometimes multiple daily) posts these past two weeks, it just wasn't possible. Our total number of page visits is presently just under 345,000 hits, and monthly attendance reached its all-time-high of 33,000+ hits last March. (Why March, I have no idea; it wasn't the month of the Roger Corman Blog-A-Thon, nor a particularly outstanding month in terms of content.) Mondays and Wednesdays seem to be our busiest days, with visits declining as we approach the weekend and dropping off to slightly more than half our weekday attendance on weekends. That doesn't stop me from putting in my time, of course, as with yesterday's two big Jess Franco preview-reviews, which I believe were the first to appear online.
The most amazing statistic of all (to me) I've saved for last. A week or so ago, I spent a few hours copying all the text from this blog into a separate Word document. Blogger had been suffering some irregularities and shutdowns, and it occurred to me that none of the material I'd written for Video WatchBlog had been backed up; therefore, it was all too possible that I might sign on one day to find everything gone, without warning. I couldn't copy over the illustrations, which all remain logged in my computer anyway, but I did pour all the text. I've been adding each new posting to the document since, and after applying standard manuscript specs to the pages -- Bookman Old Style font, 12-point type, double spaced -- the collected Video WatchBlog to date amounts to 870 pages!
That's work I generated not in my spare time, but in my spare spare time -- when I wasn't working on VW, or the Bava book, or my novel-in-progress. I don't say this to be boastful (well, not entirely), but rather to point out what can be achieved in a single year with no more than an hour or two of not-even-daily effort. A fellow writer wrote me last week to seek my advice about how he might better organize time for book writing when job, marriage and fatherhood are claiming most of the hours in his day; I sent him these statistics as proof of what can be done if one writes for only an hour or less, and not even every day, over the course of a year. The important thing is to let the work stack up, to be disciplined. Had I worked only half so hard as I did on this blog the first year, I'd have 400+ pages -- still enough for a book.
The only problem with devoting time to this blog is that it doesn't generate any income, so there's no compensation (other than your friendly e-mails) for the time and industry I put into it, other than the pleasure I personally derive from it, which is considerable. It keeps the machinery well-tuned, enabling me to be more proficient at paying work. It has also filled the breach while VW has been publishing irregularly over the past year, which is a good thing, and it's allowed me to branch out and write about things that don't fall within the general scope of VW -- life, comics, people, music. When he read my eulogy for Gene Pitney, Joe Dante sent me a note telling me that I'd outdone myself, which was one of one of my prouder moments of this past year. Video WatchBlog was also instrumental in achieving some positive changes at Monsters HD and Turner Classic Movies, and to effect positive change is perhaps the best kind of reimbursement.
Some bloggers have Amazon.com Wish List (identified on one blog I've visited as "Buy Me Stuff") or PayPal links on their pages, but I don't want to go there. Suffice to say, if you read this blog regularly and are not already a VW subscriber, you can help to perpetuate both magazine and blog by subscribing or picking up some back issues. We make it very easy for you at our website, accepting credit cards and PayPal and offering a toll-free number. Mind you, since this blog began, we've seen the unfortunate end of PSYCHOTRONIC VIDEO, FILM SCORE MONTHLY, WRAPPED IN PLASTIC, OUTRÉ, CULT MOVIES, and SCARLET STREET. VIDEO WATCHDOG has no intention of throwing in the towel, and especially with new contributors like Ramsey Campbell aboard, we're feeling stronger than ever and are determined to continue as a unique and useful voice in the HD DVD era looming ahead.
Having witnessed the struggle sometimes involved with producing this blog, which I've never bothered to disguise, a couple of you have proposed that I might want to discontinue it after reaching this first anniversary, or once VIDEO WATCHDOG is able to resume its monthly schedule. I have considered both possibilities, but I prefer to keep the door open and use this blog as I will. Perhaps once VW goes monthly once again, this blog can begin to keep some of those silly promises I made back at the beginning, like being short and sketchy and infrequent.
Whatever Video WatchBlog becomes or continues to be, you should know by now that I'll be giving it all that I can.
René Cardona Sr. Centenary
Writer-director-producer-actor René Cardona Sr. (1906-1988) would have been 100 years old today. Though not exactly the father of Mexican horror cinema, he remains the best-known of the many south-of-the-border filmmakers specializing in fright and fantasy, renowned for such popular works as DOCTOR OF DOOM, THE CRYING WOMAN, THE WRESTLING WOMEN VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY, NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES, numerous Santo films, and, of course, the mind-boggling SANTA CLAUS.


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Staff Reports
Derry News
---- — LONDONDERRY — Police are investigating a home invasion in which one man brandished a pistol.
The incident happened the night of Sept. 12 at 26 Beacon St.
Three men entered the home shortly after 9 p.m., at least one of them armed with a handgun, police said.
The men, wearing bandanas over their faces, demanded to see the owner, who was not home.
They ransacked the house, stole money, a cell phone, the house phone and car keys, then fled on foot, according to police.
Four people were at the home, but police said none were injured.
"It doesn't appear to be random; they apparently knew the homeowner," Lt. Kevin Cavallaro said. "They took a quantity of cash."
Londonderry detectives continue their investigation, he said, but he doesn't believe any suspects have been identified.
The men were described as being about 5 feet 11 inches tall, and were wearing dark clothes and gloves.
Police said it appears to be an isolated incident because the homeowner was known to the home invaders.
The town's online property tax records list the homeowner as Julio Otero-Rivera.
While police were investigating the home invasion, they made an arrest in that home's driveway on an unrelated matter, Cavallaro said.
Juan Orlanzzini, 27, of Beverly was arrested on a warrant. Cavallaro said he was in the country illegally and turned over to immigration authorities.
Orlanzzini was not involved in the home invasion, he said.
"It was a vehicle stop in the driveway," Cavallaro said. "I think it was a question of being in the wrong place at the wrong time."
It's not the search such arrest for Londonderry police in recent weeks, Cavallaro said.
Police have encountered people from other countries, specifically Guatemala and Honduras, who are in this country illegally.
"It's usually on traffic stops," Cavallaro said. "They don't have any paperwork. We call (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and they come down and pick them up."
He said the homeowner and Orlanzzini were not familiar with one another.


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Over the years, we've bought mostly Legos because of their quality and variety and number of kits. We have a few Megablocks from Canada, my son is a big fan of Pirates of the Caribbean and MegaBlocks got the contract to make constuction kits for the franchise. A few years ago we spotted some Kids Connection bricks at Wal-Mart, they were extremely cheap and in a neat storage case, so we snatched them up. I've recently discovered another company, Best-Lock out of England.
Legos are to found everywhere. Kids Connection is a brand owned by Wal-Mart, so they're exclusive, but they look a lot like MegaBlocks, so I bet MegaBlocks makes them for Wal-Mart and several other retailers. Mega-Blocks are found everywhere. Toys'R'Us has Best-Lock on their shelves and on their amazon.com portal.
I'm sure there are a dozen different companies that copy Legos or come into their own, these are just the name brands that I've come into contact with.
I just found out that K'NEX also makes good quality bricks that are compatible with Legos, but we don't have any K'NEX bricks, just the sticks and connectors. (thanks westfw!)
Lego is the best in my opinion because megablocks don't stick together and I've never heard or the others, LOL
Thanks for the instructable!


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Week 17 NFL Power Rankings: 49ers, Seahawks steady at the top - SBNation.com
4. Carolina Panthers
Current Playoff Projection: NFC No. 2 seed (NFC South leader)
They may have gotten a bit of an assist from monsoon-like conditions, but the Panthers did plenty to help their own cause as they shut down the Saints' passing attack and passed their own TCB Test with flying colors. Luke Kuechly would have needed to clone himself to be involved in more defensive plays. Cam Newton was on target when it counted as he shook off sacks and other miscues to connect on deep shots to get the Panthers in position to win at the end. A Week 17 matchup with the woebegone Falcons is all that stands between Carolina and a first-round bye. (Last week: 4)
Actually I didn;t think the rain helped us much at all. We seemed just as affected by it as the Saints. It was fun to watch though.
Looking at the top 4 contenders I do like the Panthers chances though I'm still apprehensive about the offense being able to put up enough points to beat the Seahawks or Broncos.
#1 Seahawks - They have the most complete team in the NFL and the possible addition of Percy Harvin could be the X factor.
#2 Broncos - The defense was suspect before the loss of Von Miller but Peyton Manning can put up as many points as needed. They are clearly the class of the AFC.
#3 49ers - They might have a slightly better defense than the Panthers and a better offensive line but their weak link is the play at QB. Kaepernick is very consistent when the 49ers can;t run the ball, hence the Panthers win at the Stick earlier in the season.
#4 Panthers - We know the Panther defense is one of the best so it really comes down to whether the offense can produce like it did during it's 8 game win streak. If they can get back to ball control offense and makle the most of their red zone opportunities then they have a real chance to go to the Big Dance.


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Governor Corbett seeks to have all sanctions imposed against Penn State vacated
Do you dream of bathing in an unending wave of college football goodness? Do you ever feel like you just see too much of your girlfriend, the sun or your Jack Russell, Bo? If so, do we have...
John Ziegler and Franco Harris media stunt "confrontation" with NCAA President Mark Emmert was counterproductive to the efforts to rebuild Penn State's tattered reputation.
Penn State's Board of Trustees will meet on Sunday by teleconference to discuss the Consent Decree agreed to by President Rodney Erickson and NCAA President Mark Emmert. The Trustees are expected...
Success With Hyperlinking takes a look around the web for stories about the beginning of Penn State summer practice, the remaining players on the roster, and the NCAA appeals filed by three...
With the NCAA's severe sanctions levied against Penn State, the NCAA set a dangerous precedent that they can come after schools whether they mess up on or off the field. But will they take...
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Ellis also brought up a campaign advertisement placed in the Daily Mountain Eagle by mayoral candidate Ricky "Spider" Thomas, which was formatted as a letter from Thomas to the people of Sumiton. Ellis said he believed there was some clarification needed on at least one item in the letter, the allegation that he purchased property without the approval of the city council.
Ellis then presented and read three sets of minutes from previous council meetings in which the property purchases along Main Street were discussed within the council.
In other business:
•Ellis recommneded that Joe Holley be reappointed to the Housing Authority and the council agreed with that recommendation.
•Counci member Ken Russell asked to be appointed, along with Fire Chief David Waid and Robert Nelson of Nelson Engineering, to work on progressing the construction of the city's proposed new fire department. Land has already been purchased for the department off Bryan Road.


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|Government revenue.
|Gravity model.
|Hispanic Americans -- Cultural Assimiliation.
|Homeownership Rates
|Housing price.
|Industrial location -- Effect of labor market on -- Research.
|Industrial productivity --- East Asia -- Measurement.
|Information leaks.
|Information systems.
|Information systems strategy.
|Insurance, Health --- United States.
|Intellectual Property
|International trade.
|Intervention Principle
|IT contribution to performance.
|IT unit agility.
|JEL Classification: D40
|JEL Classification: D60
Now showing items 40-59 of 123


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A collection of news and information related to Emily Deschanel published by this site and its partners.
Top Emily Deschanel Articles
Displaying items 12-22
Wednesday's TV Highlights: 'American Horror Story: Coven' on FX
Tuesday's TV Highlights: 'New Girl' on Fox
Friday's TV Highlights: 'Raising Hope' on Fox
Fox Shuffles 'Almost Human' Premiere for NFL BoostStory | Oct 21, 2013 | 8:30 PMFox has pushed back the premiere of J.J. Abrams' robot-cop drama "Almost Human" by two weeks to give the show the benefit of a football launchpad on Sunday, Nov. 17. The drama had been set to bow in the Monday 8 p.m. slot on Nov. 4. Fox has opted to...
Catch an extended sneak peek of FOX's "Almost Human" tonight during "Bones"Story | Oct 21, 2013 | 4:32 PMThe main event on FOX's primetime lineup tonight is undoubtedly the wedding between Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and Booth (David Boreanaz) on Bones, but nestled into the nuptials will be an extended sneak peek at the network's upcoming sci-fi drama Almost...
McNamara's picks: 'Grimm,' 'Bones,' 'Dancing on the Edge'
Judd Apatow, Albert Brooks, Eric McCormack Honored at Rape Foundation BrunchStory | Sep 30, 2013 | 8:30 PMJosh Radnor, Judd Apatow and Christina Hendricks and other stars gathered Sept. 29 to not only enjoy a lovely brunch at the private estate of Ron Burkle, but to support a noble cause: The Rape Foundation's 19th annual brunch. The celebrities posed for...
Monday's TV Highlights: 'Under the Dome' on CBS
TV This Week Sept. 15 - 21: 'Great Performances' on PBS
On TV, a new breed of Modern Woman
Tonight: Melissa McCarthy in 'Mike & Molly'; Westminster Dog Show; reality-show murder on 'Castle'Story | Feb 11, 2013 | 4:42 PMMelissa McCarthy conquered the box office over the weekend. The people who shelled out $36.6 million to see her in "Identity Thief" have a chance to bolster her ratings on "Mike & Molly" at 9:30 p.m. Monday on CBS. I went to...


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Dolly, the fourth named storm of the 2014 Atlantic hurricane season, is expected to make landfall in Mexico.
Summer is almost here, and that means summer vacation, but you should make sure your summer vacation plans include more than just simply getting out of town; leaving town could make your home a prime target for burglars.
Some security tips include: stopping mail and newspaper delivery, and bringing in the trash cans. You also need to take extra time to check all of your doors and windows and even consider adding additional blocks to sliding glass doors to discourage thieves.
"People forget that, they just pack…Well think about how you're securing your home," says Monica Zech, safety and injury prevention expert. "They'll climb up balconies, they'll climb up trees, they get pretty creative."
Also, make sure you lock your garage door so that it can not be disconnected and opened up. And consider a trick of looking like your home, such as asking a trusted neighbor to park in your driveway or by using plug-in timers on lights and tvs, to make noise.
You might also consider turning down the volume of your home phone while you're gone because you don't want a would-be burglar to hear it ringing and nobody answering.
In addition to these tips, the Montgomery Police Department offers a service through its volunteers in police service program where residents who are leaving town can call 3-1-1 and request police to monitor their homes while they're away. They can check the surroundings of your home if you give them an advanced notice.
Copyright 2013 WSFA 12 News http://www.wsfa.com/. All Rights Reserved.
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Fight for Ohio's State Forests – No Logging!
Ohio DNR wants to clear-cut and burn it's way through Ohio's natural forests. Take action Share this on Facebook Share this on Twitter The Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry is promoting commercial logging in each of the State Forestsagain this fiscal year. The Division [...continue reading.]


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Fried Clams Recipe
The clam's crunchy, golden coating will truly melt in your mouth. One bite and you'll understand why these are considered a delicacy! Tim Connolly, Freeport, Maine
- 1-1/2 cups yellow cornmeal, divided
- 1/2 cup cake flour, divided
- 2/3 cup water
- 12 fresh cherrystone clams, shucked
- Oil for deep-fat frying
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Tartar sauce or seafood cocktail sauce, optional
- In a shallow bowl, combine 3/4 cup cornmeal and 1/4 cup flour with the water, forming a batter. In another bowl, combine the remaining cornmeal and flour.
- Dip clams in batter; shake off excess. Coat with cornmeal mixture.
- In an electric skillet or deep-fat fryer, heat oil to 375°. Fry clams, a few at a time, for 4-5 minutes or until golden brown. Drain on paper towels; sprinkle with salt.
- Serve immediately with sauce if desired. Yield: 1 dozen.
Originally published as Fried Clams in Taste of Home June/July 2009, p12
Medium-Bodied White Wine
Enjoy this recipe with a medium-bodied white wine such as Riesling or Gewürtztraminer
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Find an Item in O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library
Do you have a call number for an item (from CLICnet, Summon or elsewhere) and you're trying to find out where it is shelved in the O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library? Or, would you like to see a OSF Library floor plan (PDF)?
What are you looking for?
I'm looking for a BOOK
Found a book in CLICnet and want to find where it is shelved in O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library?
Start typing the first letters of your call number (it should look something like PS3556.R352 F74 2010) and select the prefix from the dropdown that matches your call number.


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You're leaving Wedding Paper Divas to see the Deal of the Day at our parent site, Tiny Prints.
You won't be able to dismiss this by usual means (escape or click button), but you can close it programatically based on user choices or actions.
"This shower invitation was exactly how pictured. I absolutely love it and so did all my guests. They raved about how cute and different it was!"
"Everyone who has received the invitation has complemented on how beautiful it is. I choose a gold envelope which added a nice touch!"
"We purchased this from WPD and once again, their products are stunning. I always shop here for paper needs - reasonable prices and outstanding work!!"
"As the MOH for my sister's upcoming wedding, I wanted to ensure her bridal shower was the absolute best it could be! When I came across this website, I was blown away with the options they offered and the level of customization you could do. These shower invites arrived exactly on the date I was estimated at (after a holiday weekend mind you!) and they came out so perfect and beautiful! I was over the moon thrilled by the quality of the invitation and have had several friends and family also comment on how beautiful the invitation was. Would highly recommend!"
"The card stock was good quality, we ordered the shimmer paper with the scalloped edges which made the invite all the prettier. Would recommend the white envelopes if using matching return address stickers and address labels. I ordered the gold envelopes which looked very nice with the invitation but after putting the stamp, return address label and addressed labels on gold envelope it looked tacky."


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Keen Rosarita
4-star: 0
3-star: 1
2-star: 0
1-star: 0
These are so comfy and I always have some kind of…
Materials: soft leather
Use: travel,walking,shopping,cute
Break-in Period: none
Price Paid: $70
These are so comfy and I always have some kind of issues with shoe-blisters, rubbing etc. Just make sure you get a half size smaller because they are soft leather and do stretch out a little. I LOVE THEM :)
I got them a couple years ago and can't find them anymore. If anyone know where to buy them let me know. Thanks.
When I tried on these shoes, I bought a half size…
Price Paid: $65
When I tried on these shoes, I bought a half size smaller than usual because they felt sloppy on my feet. The smaller size was a bit sloppy, but I liked them so much I bought them any way.
I wore them for about 4 hours and the back strap was so stretched out that it wouldn't stay up. I wet the strap and let it dry but that still didn't work to well. If anyone has had a similar problem, I would like to remedy this. Thanks
Retailers' Descriptions
Here's what other sites are saying:
If you're tired of slipping and tripping in your casual leather soled sandals, Keen's Rosarita offers a better grip on your summer fun. The Rosarita features a woven leather upper like many casual sandals and shoes, but that's where the similarities stop. Slip your foot inside and you'll notice an ergonomically shaped metatomical footbed with exceptional support and comfort. Beneath the footbed is a cushioned compression molded EVA midsole that minimizes the shocks of repeated foot strike, a critical component if you're up on your feet all day. Beneath everything is a cool and functional tire-tread lug outsole that keeps your feet solidly planted beneath you even on varied surfaces. Whether you're shopping or hanging out with friends, Keen's Rosarita won't trip you up on slick surfaces like conventional leather soled footwear.
- Altrec Outdoors
Free Shipping. Keen Women's Rosarita Sandals (Spring 2007) The Keen Women's Rosarita Shoe bringa a whole new meaning to huarache styling. Light and airy woven uppers feel immediately broken-in, and are supported by Keen s metatomical footbed. The EVA midsole cusions your feet with every step, while the rubber outsole features a spin on the original radial tire design, keeping your traction solid. Features Metatomical footbed Compression molded EVA midsole Patented toe protection Tire-tread lug design Anti-slip non-marking carbon-rubber outsole with inset linen fabric Unlined leather uppers 8.8 oz / 260 grams
- Moosejaw
Keen Rosarita
The Rosarita has been discontinued.previously retailed for:
$59.97 - $90.00
The Keen Rosarita is not available from the stores we monitor. It was last seen May 4, 2008 at Altrec Outdoors.
If you're looking for a new sandal, check out the best reviewed current models.


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