HORROR MOVIES: AN ILLUSTRATED SURVEY —
Carlos Clarens (London, Seeker and Warburg) Unlike Westerns or Musicals or any other of the restricted genres of film, Horror films seem to attract almost the total film audience. I can only gauge the extent of their ap peal by the fact that in any dis cussion of films, the one area which nearly everyone feels qualified to speak on from a knowledge of the particular films is that of the Hor ror movie. On thinking about this fact, maybe it merely reflects the power of the myths involved rather than a general "popularity” of the genre, leading to some sort of mass awareness of the traditions and
conventions of Horror films rather than knowledge based on a viewing of the films. As the author of this book notes . . . "Frankenstein went on to become the most famous hoi ror movie of all time; to the mind served by mass media, the doctor and his creation became one and indivisible, at least in reference Beginning at the first showing ol the Lumiere brother’s invention, the Cinematographe, in Paris on the 27th December 1895, we are soon involved in the magical world of dreams and the supernatural as created by George Melies, whose fer tile imagination and camera wizardry carried audiences on a rocket trip to the moon, tunnelling the English Channel and to the conquest if the Pole. But Melie’s theatrical origins and techniques based on camera trickery soon became unfashionable, as films such as The Life of an American Fireman (Edwin S. Por ter, 1902) and The Great Train Robbery (Porter, 1903) showed that the cinema had paths of its own to explore.
The films made in Germany be tween 1913 and 1932 have always occupied the students of film and Clarens adequately surveys this fascinating period which, quite nat urally, is firmly centred around The Cabinet of Dr. Calagari made in 1919. However it is not the evil Doctor and his somnambulist Cesare that captures our attention but rather the legend of the Golem. Brought to the screen by the actor Paul Wegener, the Golem was a popular figure of Jewish tradition, “the body without a soul”, and featured in The Golem (1914) and The Golem and the Dancing Girl (1917). This period ends with Fritz Lanf, who, having contributed filrns such as Dr. Mabuse. The Gambler (1922). The Spy (1928) and Met ropolis (1926), decides to leave Germany on the night he is offered the post of director of the Third Reich's film industry. Lang went to America and whilst horror films had already become an established part of the repertoire of the early Amer ican cinema, ii is at this time that
we .\itness the beginning of a period during which an all-out assault was r !e on the nerves and limits ol the audience’s imagination Reading this book, and in fact any book which deals with any genre or with the history of the motion picture, it is quite eas to get the impression that we arc I. ok ing at a vast collection of mec ocre films with only occasional examples of any taste, intelligence or skill The “politique des auteur” a general theory of film criticism which made us aware that in most cases the director of the film was the main creative force behind the finished product, led to an examination of the work of a few directors whose films displayed a consistent, develop ing and worthwhile personal vision of the world. Having come to the conclusion that . for instance . . Alfred Hitchcock or Arthur Penn were “auteurs", we would observe and study their films, not because they will all be brilliant examples of the art of the cinema, but because each film will give us more infor
mation about the director’s particu lar viewpoint and the way its pres entation may develop. Obviously the director will not be the “auteur” in every case. Some times it may be the Producer, (Mack Sennett, David O. Selznick) the Writer, (Paddy Chayefsky. George Axelrod) or the cameraman (James Wong Howe, Raoul Coutard) At certain times a group of film artists may come together and all contri bute to the fashioning of a film or films. This was certainly the case with the Musical in the early fifties when Arthur Freed, Roger Edens, Gene Kelly Fred Astaire. Stanley Donen in various combinations were responsible for such films as Singm in the Rain", “The Band waggon", “ft’s Always Fair Weather", “On the Town", “Funny Face", and with the Western in the middle and late fifties when Budd Beetticher, Burt Kennedy, Harry Joe Brown and Randolph Scott made "The Tall T", "Decision at Sundown”, "Buch anan Rides Alone", "Ride Lone some” and "Comanche Station”.
The Horror film attracted similar working groups such as Lon Chaney and Tod Browning, James Whale and Boris Karloff, writers John L. Balderston and set designer Charles D. Hall, and a gallery of accomp lished monsters including Karloff. Bela Lugosi. Basil Rathbone, Gale Sonderga-rc Lon Chaney Jnr.. Lio nel At'.vili and John Carrauine. One o the most successful teams wa- ;ii.it headed by Val Lewton and comprising writers like DeWitt Bodeen, cartx; imen like Nick Musuraca. directors like Jacques Tour neur ano between 1942 and 1946 proved ihat u was not necessary to inve.it weird creatures in ordei to frighten and horrify but that greater fear existed in the mind of man the reason of unreason” Unfortunately there are no guar antees the.' by merely assembling a group of film artists and concentra ting almost exclusively on one type of film that the result will be a succession of worthwhile films. The Hammer Studios of Great Britain with writers Jimmy Sangster, An thony Hinds, directors Terence Fis her and Don Sharp and actors such as Christopher I-ee and Peter Cush ing have taken over the mantle of the Universal Studios and embarked on a journey which involves not only remaking old classics but also of inventing a few new scary souls from the tombs of ancient mythol ogy. Whilst they have contributed several notable films to the genre, even these successes nowhere ap proach the heavily atmospheric and deeply symbolic Poe adaptations brought to the screen by that oneman movie machine Roger Corman and usually relying on the decadent majesty of Karloff or the wounded egoism of Vincent Price. Carlos Clarens has done his home work well. His research appears very thorough, his tracing of the common themes is enlightening ano lucid and his understanding of. and sympathy for the actors whose task it was to portray the various ghouls is an unexpected and welcome sur prise. Whilst Karloff is generally recognised as a performer of sensi tivity and taste, it is good to see the author note his quite distinct inter pretations of his many roles. Of great interest also are the sections dealing with the creators of the animal monsters, especially Willis H. O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen whose work spans "King Kong" to "The I'alley of Gwangi". The book ends with the films of the present, reflecting horrors of a new age which has not been reluc tant to provide its own terrors in broad daylight and on the front pages of our newspapers. Beginning with Melies and “A Trip to the Moon" in 1902, one arrives at "Alphaville", "La Jette", "Farenheit 451” and "The Birds" at a time when the frenchman’s dream has become a reality and therefore of little interest to the tellers of fairy tales. — AI Finney.
THE FILM DIRECTOR AS SUPERSTAR. WOODSTOCK NATION A TALK-ROCK ALBUM
Abbie Hoffman
Within five days Abbie Hoffman compiled his bird’s-eye view of to day. His solo carried him from the early days of rock and roll to the Woodstock Festival with millions of side trips in between, arriving at con clusions sometimes brilliant and sometimes hard to swallow, to say the least. It seems as if Mr. Hoffman knows what’s happening. He knows where salvation lies and spent five days laying it out; singing it; swearing it; drawing it and any other technique vivid enough to cover the emergency
Joseph Gelmis Doubleday and Company, Inc. 1970 $4.55
C O C IA S
and explosiveness of “our predica ment". Thoughts fly a million miles an hour. The book sometimes runs into diary form; the chapter (track) con taining a year’s rundown on his busts — 4C in all. his days as a hood in New York, a detailed dose of his LSD bummer in Woodstock. But on a less personal basis Wood stock Nation contains prophetic in sights on the upsurgence of the Woodstock Nation against the Pig Nation. Naturally his sympathy lies with Woodstock Nation. Who and what Woodstock Nation is. is rather difficult to describe. First off. it is definitely the 400,000 people at the Woodstock Festival and the other 400.000 who tried in vain to get there. Its face probably wears a beard, moustache, or a
couple of day s growth: maybe long side-burns and long hair. “ but no Pig is gonna go home to Queens each night or on weekends and play eolf with his buddies lookin like Tiny Tim". The age is usually be tween 15 and 30. Yet Hoffman stresses that all this is only the icing. The cake is the beliefs. Our Wood stock nation inhabitant wants Free dom. Freedom from Pig Nation. Pig Nation includes almost every thing embodying the mechanical, material or otherwise inhuman. Abbie not only advocates hate for Pig Nation but total destruction of same. Right at the moment Hoffman is serving a five year prison sentence because Pig Nation could not stand that kind of goings on. (See Revol ution on the Chicago trial) Hoffman clearly defines all he is fightin for and agin’
"When 1 appear in the Chicago courtroom. I want to be tried not because I support the National ! iberation Front — which I do — out because I have long hair Not because I support the Black Liberation Movement, bm because i smokt dope. Not because 1 am against a capitalistic system, but because t think property eats shu Noi because I believe in student power bui that school should be destroyed. Not because I rn against corporate liberalism, nut because ! think People should do whatever the I—k they want, and not because I am trying to organize the working class, but be cause 1 think kids should kill then parents. Finally. I want to be tried for having a good time and not tor being serious. I'm not angy over Vietnam and racism and imperialism 'Naturally. I'm against all that shit but I'm real I■ pissed cause my friends are all m prison tot dope and cops stop me on the streets cause I havt long hair I'm guilty of a conspiracy, all right. Guilty of creating liberated land in which we can do whatever the f—k we decide. Guilty of helping to bring the Woodstock Nation to the whole earth. Guilty of trying to overthrow the motherf—king senile government of the U.S of A 1 just thought you ought to know where my head was at. Pig Nation, lust thought I’d let you know what I mean when I say. “I'm just doin my thing.' Mm McFarland
Interviews with Jim McBride, Brian De Pal ma, Robert Downey, Norman Mailer, Andy Warhol, John Cassavetes, Lindsay Anderson, Bern ado Bertolucci, M i l o s Fo”eman, Roman Polan ski, Roger Corman, F ran cis Ford Coppola, Arthur Penn, Richard Lester, Mike Nicholls, Stanley Kubrick. Interviews with film directors have always been a feature of most mag azines of film content or criticism and in some cases, intelligent inter views have been the only redeeming aspect of an otherwise dull and uninformed publication. Recently however, a number of books made up of collections of interviews have appeared, some worthless such as The Celluloid Muse, others of great value such as The Film Director As