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Famous Monsters of Filmland 011 1961 Warren Publishing
Famous Monsters of Filmland 011 1961 Warren Publishing
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MGM'S NEW RELEA,
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"What's My Line/ jusi call me Line Chaney jr.. The Man of A Thousand Creases. I want fu 3ip
for a couple centuries and woke up looking like Rip Van Wrinkle! But I'll tell you one thing: in this maqa*
zine nobody sleeps!
FOUR SCARE and 7 fear
Our four fathers brought
Upon this continent a new maga
Conceived in lunacy and dead-icated
To the proposition that
ALL MONSTERS ARE CREATED!
um^<
These are the famous Lost Words tiiat
the Missing Lincoln spoke just after The
Incident of the Chopped Down Cherry Tree.
Queried as to why he had put it down. Gorgo
Washington replied: "I cannot tell a lieit
was because You Axed For It!"
Well, we here at FAMOUS MONSTERS have
long since ceased to be engaged in a mighty
struggle for survival. We are now II issues
old.
Your Editor was tremonstrously flattered
on his 44tli birthday, last Thanksgiving, to
the occasion by Larry Byrd & ..
co-editors of the amateur (but nrt mmnr-
!sh) monsterzine Terror and its companion,
Escape. In addition to contributions by Ray
Bradbury and Frtlz Leiber, the magazine
featured an editorial which stated in part:
"The format of this zine is taken from
FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND, a maga-
zine which has become a smashing success
across the nation."
As we look forward to issues No. 12, 13
and onward, we envision nothing but con-
tinuing success with a series of smashing
articles that we are even now negotiating
for, including "The Clown at Midnight" by
Robert Block, "Monsters and Monster Lov-
ers" by Fritz Leiher, "The Beasts of Tarzan"
by Vernell Coriell and "The Thing from An-
other World" (classic fiction) by John W.
Campbell Jr.
We're going strong; grow along with us.
BECAUSE Dr, Acula couldn't make up his
minds (one in each head) this time, in-
stead of the usual 3 prizes tor Best Let-
ters we are giving 4! ROBERT FEINSTEIN of
Brooklyn, JOtIN PARNUM of Philly, Texan
DOUG TRAHAN of Houston and fan HANS
NINTZEL (Bklyn rides again!) have each re-
ceived with Forrest J, Ackerman's compli-
ments an autographed copy of the British
BOOK OF WEIRD TALES which he has edited.
BRAVE MAN & TRUE FAN
Since I own a complete set of FAMOUS MON-
STERS, I (eel I know you pretty well by now.
First let me state that FM is my favorite maga-
zine, and that I am writing this letter to see if
1 can tielp you to make it even more enjoyable.
(Bob then gives a detailed analysis, citing pages
and numbers wtiere he felt past issues could
have been improved, and these recommendations
have been carefully studied in the editorial of-
fice.} Suggestions tor the future: the life stories
of Theda Bara (she was a vamp. Sob, not a
vampire), John Carradine, Rondo Hatton, Tor
Johnson. Lon Chaney Jr. [request granted in this
issue), Peter Lorre, Claude Rains and other hor-
ror greats. Why not have one biography each
issue? (Not enuf worthy subiects to last for
the many many years we expect to be publish-
ing. Therefore, you will find a biography every
2 or 3 issues. Probably Peter Lorre nent.) Why
not assemble all the photographs ot wereloves
in one special articlestills from THE WOLF-
MAN, WEREWOLF OF LONDON, UNDYING MON
STER, the unfortunate werewolf Andres from
RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE, Bela Lugosi as the
werewolf in ISLAND OF LOST SOULS, I WAS A
TEENAGE WEREWOLF and many more. lA prac-
tical idea for future consideration. However,
Lugosi was not a werewolf in ISLAND OF LOST
SOULShe did not have the lycanthropic ability
of turning back and forth between wolf and
man; he was a wolf whose evolution had been
scientifically sped up thru thousands of years
so that he became a manwolf.) How about a spe-
cial article on space creatures? A comparison ot
the Chaney, Laughton and Quinn Hunchbacks of
Notre Dame? An article showing pictures and
comparing Mighty Joe Young. King Kong and Son
of Kong? Why don't you concentrate more or the
pictures from the 20s and 30s? (The older the
movies the more difficult to locate fotos from
them to illustrate them.) By the way, I actuahy
like Zacherley, have met him in person, iistened
to his heart with my own stethescooe!
ROBERT FEINSTEIN
BROOKLYN, N. Y.
DR. iOKERKMR.HYDE
Your readers may be interested in this photo-
graph of a monster friend of mine. Mr. fan S.
Kopf. He is a good customer as for obvious
reasons he buys 2 copies of every issue,
OSKAR WAHRMANN
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL
"TWO HEADS ARE BETTER THAN NONE
"
^#
Friend Wahrmann, we suspect you are either
pullini; our leis or our heads. Your triend Mr.
Kopf wouldn't be the son of JANUS KOPF would
he? See our JEKYLL-HYDE feature In this issue
for references to other 2-t)ced individuals.
FRIGHT FANNES FIGHT!
Your magazine is fabulous. I have 3 girls who all
fight to see the pictures, I have iust sent for 2
back issues and will soon subscribe. Give us
more of this type of magazine and can the sexy,
girly type. Better our kidsteenagers included
get interested in good clean monsters!
MRS. LILYANNE LIMA
NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND
TTiink you. Mrs, Lima! Rest assured that all
our monsters are of Hie cleanest quality imag-
inable IS Count Karlon Toreosi himseH personal-
ly gives them > bat every Satyr Day Nite,
ACKERMAN, 60 HOME!
As an "aficionado" (see, I can use the word
properly) of the old-fashioned horror movie, I
am very pleased to see that you are attempting
to turn your magazine into something that the
serious horror fan can eagerly await and enjoy
from the poor collection of high school type
puns that beloved F. J, Ackerman seems to think
his "fuzzy-faced" audience thrives on, I'm no
teenager any more but I believe that Mr. Acker-
man underestimates his teenage audience. The
majority would enjoy some real information
at>out the horror movies, I also believe you
would attract more adult fans such as myself. I
only buy your magazine occasionally for the biog-
raphies ol the stars and the piots of the old
moviesr but the new policy, if implemented,
would force me to subscribe, i believe you are
making a big mistake in "talking down" to your
teenage audience's level as interpreted by Mr,
Ackerman, He is capable of much lietter writing
than he currently produces in your magazine. By
all means give Ackerman a rest or make him
lift his standards and help make your magazine
worthy of the support and enjoyment of the
many true horror fans that have no periodical
to represent them at the present time.
SIDNEY H, BROWN
BRONX, N. Y.
This is the publisher, James Warren, respond-
ing. Let's see If I can set the facts straight
once and for ail Ho one was mure disappointed
than Forest I. Ackerman when I had to break tbe
news to him that not only could I not use his
title of WONDERAMA but that the magazine
would have to be slanted at young teens raHiei
than adults. He almost hacked out of tbe pro-
ject then and there, and without him FAMOUS
MONSTERS would never have been horn. The de-
cision was not even mine: it was torced on us
both in order to obtain distribution on the news-
stands. Do you understand that? I could have
produced tbe imaginative movie magazine Forry
Ackerman dreamed of and was canable ot cre-
ating in literate fashion for cinema scholars and
fantasy enthusiasts, taut it wouldn't have done
him or you or me any good stacked up In a
warehouse undistributed! I never anticipated
more than one issue but FM No. 1 was such a
runaway success that I commissioned Forry to
prepare a second number; only now. to bis des-
pair, I Instructed him to lower the level of writ-
ing this decision being based on tbe tan mail re-
ceived I hope I am putting across the point that
he had no choice, and not because 1 am a vil-
lain, or hate adults, but because my principal
Continued ot; page 6
MEWOMrV?
#1 in a series of FDin People et
Montterlaml: J. Forester Eettrnm, twin
brother of Editor FiA.
FORREST J ACKERMAN
diior
JACIE ASTRACHAN
man aging editor
JAMES WARREN
publisher
Cantnil FubKtoHem, 1.. _ _
liing and SubKrlptEon OfficM o
WaiMnBtan Lan., Phlladgtphiq
'-Mid-Croii meW pri'll " "
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at M*rid>n, Can
SubMrlptian; 1 Yaori $2.00 m thi U.S. ai
Conodo. Eliatvtwn; fl.OO. Cenlrtbulia
or* InvffM) pmidsd nru'n potfagt li
(lud} hawvar no n>pDn(<bility (on I
I. NoHiing mnr ht
n pannlulDn hum rtia puhlKhtr. FAMM
lONSnNS OF riLMlANO ii lord lubiall
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SUUCTIIIEt CHANGE OF ADOHSS: Qiv<
waakl natica. Sand an oddnii imprlnl Fran
rtcant liiiM or iHIa aiadly how lobal ii
addmiad. Sand aid addraii ei w*n mnvw
CtEDITS I ACKNOWltDGMtNTS: Email A
aihrodi, CInto-MolMia-ATlaca, Rebl. W
Cobum, Agaric [>altcb. J. Pamfai tckmon
COVER: MGM's GORGO
by FM's GOGOS
PANG MAIL
If the Tooth were known, We write all the letters Our-
selves. Our Dentist has a lot of Pull in his own office,
but around here We fill all the cavities.
THE CRYSTAL CHERRY TREE
Chips & Tips from the Cherry Tree of Knowledge. The
Chip of Things to Come in the Filmworid of Horrordom
as reported by the Father of His Country, Gorgo Woe-
Shun-Tomb. (His Country: Kongsylvania.)
GORGO THE GARGANTUAN
Bigger than THE BEHEMOTH! Greater than GOD-
ZILLA!! Kolossaller than KING KONG!!!
SON OF MISTER MONSTER
The Creatureful Career of Lon Chaney Jr. No son
could hope to overshadow the Master Shadow of the
Senior Chaney, King of the Shadow Screen, but his
offspring has sprung to prominence with many a telling
characterization of his own. WOLFMAN, MUMMY,
DRACULA. FRANKSTEIN, he's played them all
THE SECRET THAT DR. JEKYLL COULDN'T HIDE
The Whole Infamous Half A Century History of Dr.
Jekyll's Struggle with the Incarnation of Evil.
THE MACABRE PICTURES OF EDGAR ALLAN POE
Fear . . . Terror . . . Horror
. . . DespairAll Abound
in the Darkly Poetic
Works of Edgar Allan. Via
the Rue Morgue to the
House of Usher, stopping
to pet a Black Cat along
the way and admire a
Raven in the window of a
bird shop, we are taken on
a cinematic tour (via Kar-
loff & Lugosi) of the fever
dream domain of E. A.
Poe by the internationally
famous G. Scognamillo,
SCREAMS FROM CLUB MEMBERS
A roaring round-up of local FM Club News, Names,
Advertisements & Photos of Club Members who have
made the change from Human to Monster.
MONSTER MARKET PLACE
More in store for you at our Monster Store. Open 24
hours a day!
SPACEMEN COMING!
Announcement of an excitinf? NEW magazine
by
the
Editors of FAMOUS MONSTERS.
THE POE MANS SATURDAY EVENING GHOST
Continued from page 4
motivatiDn for publishing FM Is to make money
Purists often lose track ol this iMt when mak-
ins impractical demands like "drop all the ad-
vertisine". For my money. Forry has done a he-
roic jota with the magaiine. Those who attempted
to imitate himWorld Famous Creatures. Mon-
ster Parade, Screen Chilts. Monsters 1. Thinis
and The Frankenstein Journalall tailed. But
you are now holding in your hands the 11th is-
sue ot a mafaiine that was only expected to
last one issue, and there is every reason to
believe "there'll always be a FAMOUS MON-
STERS"at least as lone as I can (et Forry
Ackerman to eo on writlne it for me . . . and
you. No one who has ever read his Lon Chanev
story. "Letter to An Aniel"; his ott-reprinted
and translated "Mute Question"; or any ol his
many articles and stories In adult periodicals
under his own name and pen names such as
Weaver Wrieht and Spencer Strong;-no one
acquainted with his work outside FM can doubt
that Forrest i. Ackerman can indeed write. Bui
the point I want to hammer home over and over
again is that even it fiohert Bioch or Irving
Glassman or Boris Karioff were to he Editor ol
FAMOUS MONSTERS, they would have to comoly
with my instructions as publisher or else there
would be no magazine But we are strong enough
now to beein to experiment a bit in thi> direc-
tion of more mature material and I can assure
you no one is more pleased than Forry Acker-
man himself. Vou should be gratified with our
new comnanion publication SPACEMEN, which
starts off with its #1 issue (see page 46) on a
higher level than it was possible with FMJ.W
FRANKEN'S TRIM
TRINA PFTIT (above) is enthralled by issue
of FM (special cover prepared by Albert NueUelll
circulated at birthday party in editor's Horror-
wood iiome where youne actress, artist and (an
tasy tan met Robert Bioch. Fritz Leiber. Ray
Bradbury. Alex Gordon, William Rotsler, Chris
Robinson, and other producer-writer-actor per-
sonalitiBs of Monsterdom.
THE HALL OF THE FAUST OF USHER
I am in the 9tli grade and our Englisii class is
studying tiie life and works of Edgar Allen Poe.
(Then the first thing you should know, young
friend, is that Poe's middle name was spelled
Allanrhymes wilti Sian.) Last week I took the
9th issue of FM to my English teacher because
of the article "The fall of tlie House of Usher",
which was one ol Poe's gfeatest wortis. Do you
know what my teacher did? (If you will send us
the ashes ol your t}urned copy we will send you
a replacement free of charge.) He read the book
cover to cover and cut out the article on Poe
like a mad executioner! (What?!) And tacked it
to our bulletin board, ruining my magazine. Can
you beat that?
PHIL WIYEK
BALTIMORE, MD.
Once a cutup always a cutup. Reminds me
of the time when I was in the 9th tnit and an
iostructor tacked me on the liulletin bsird
THE BANTAM FANTOM
I would like your opinion on my makeup as The
Phantom of the Opera. I used putty on the nose
and poker chips in my mouth.
JIM STIHGEN
VENTURA, CALIF.
ANOTHER CHANEY
XInt job, Jim! We don't in general approve of
13-year-alds using poker chips but you put yours
to good usejDr. Acuta.
SERIOUS SUGGESTIONS
In recent issues you have been featuring photo-
graphs from foreign movies. I dislike these be-
cause they neither remind me ot past films I
have seen nor give me glimpses of films I might
see in the future The Scream Test should be
replaced by a real test with proper answers.
And leave the jokes and gags for the clods at
MAO Underneath the photos try replacing the
gags with information about the film, particu-
larly the year of release. How can the stars and
producers of horror films be reached' Wiat was
the FLAIiflE BARRIER? GIANT BEHEMOTH? Was
there a movie called
"1984"
or
"1998"
or the
like? How many Monster movies have been made
in the USA since '45?
HAROLD DEWHIRST
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
See next letter for an opposite opinion about
the value of scenes from foreign films. We'll try
a real Scream Test in the near future. Starting
with #12 we'll give more into along with the
stills We're not sure the players in and pro-
ducers ot horror pix want to he contacted by
the poblic. But if Wm. Castle. Alex Gordon. Bili
Allind, Boris Karioff, Bert Gordon. Vincent Price,
Lon Ctianey Jr. or any other monStars or mon-
ster makers wish to reveal their whereabouts
via our pages we'll be very happy to publish
their mailing addresses. BEYOND THE FLAME
BARRIER was an undistinguished film about some
interplanetary substance that fell to earth on
an artificial satellite and looked like It was go-
ing to be a menace to mankind for awhile. II
never ot out of a cave, and in the end was
etectricalUr eradicated as I recall. GIANT BE-
HEMOTH was another Godzilla-type cha-cha-cha.
In asking lor a summation of how many monster
movies have been made in the last 15 years you
are merely asking for several hundred dollars'
worth of 3 researcher's time; you realize that,
don't you? Fortunately the work has been cover-
ed in Walter W. Lee Jr's 77-pg Science-Fiction
and Fantasy Film Cheuklist of Summer IGSB, a
very few copies of which are stiH available at
S2.50 a piece from i. Forester Eckman at 915
South Sherbourne Or., Los Angeles 35, Calif.
FAVORS FOREIGN FILMONSTERS
There is one outstanding service I want to con-
gratulate you on; the inclusion in your pages of
pictures and information about the horror mov-
ies being made in Mexico. France, Germany, Italy
and elsewhere. I find it intensely interesting to
compare foreign concepts of monsters with our
home-groan (it's catching!) creatures.
ALICIA ARIA
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
We leave It to you and Harold Dewhirst to
get together and settle your differences of
opinionand may the best monster win!
FANG MAIL FOR REAL!
ANIE LINARD, Vesoui, Haute Saone, FRANCE,
prepares to sink her teeth Into a back issue ot
FM.
JAY SILVERMAN of Anaheim, Cal.; LEE HEFTER
Of Neptune, N. J.; and many others will )ind the
answer to their prayers on page S7; Binders tor
FM! Teener KEVIN KOENIGS says that in his cir-
cle of acquaintances in Milwaukee, FM is en-
joyed by a 3-year-old tot clear up to his 7S-year-
old grandma! Elsewhere in this issue we men-
tion a forthcoming foto feature, THE BEASTS OF
TARZAN by Vernell Coriell; it now appears Ron
Haydock will collaborate on this. Special thanx
to DEREK JOHN DYER for sending us the Welsh
Dragon Flag, national flag of his country, Wales.
Back in S weeks!F>A
DEPT. OF
INCKEDIBLE SHRINKING MANUSCRIPTS
With many fine letters selected for inclu-
sion we are dismayed to find we are rapidly
running out of room. A 3d page originally
planned for correspondence got crowded
out, as did our Campus Creature Feature
about the Monster Masquerade of AEP Fra-
ternity at the Univ. of Calif., LA (nextime).
Briefly, "BLOCH Vi/AS SUPERB!" was the
word from EDMUND R. MESKYS of Bklyn,
N. Y.; M. ]. MILLER of Lakewood, 0.; BRUCE
HENSTELL. LA., Cal.; JEFF NEWMAN, Nutley,
N. J.; HANS' NINTZEU Bklyn, N. Y,; KEITH
ROBIN, Charleston, S. C; HARRIET KOL
CHAK, Phila., Pa.; BOB HARPER, Scarsdale,
N. Y.; and TUCKER ASHWORTH of N. Y. C.
The Latest Chop-ter in the
cheery tale, "Ghoulby, Mr.
Chips", wherein Mr. Chips, dis-
guised as a Russian Spy named
Chipoff Tholhlok. learns the Se-
crets of the Fantastic Films now
being grueprinted on the draw-
ingboards of Hollywood, London
and Rome. and. like the Real
George of Washington's time,
tells the truth, the whole truth
and nothing but the truth . . .
and that's no Crystal Bull!
This pig made a man of himself on THE ISLAND OF
LOST SOULS, fhe domain of Mad Doctor Moroau who
speeded up the evolution of animals until they became
ackermen (something almost human).
In case you're too young to remember the year the
barbers went on strike, we bring you this striking foto
of the results. <Lon Chaney Jr. in THE HOUSE OF
TERROR).
Tying in with our JEKYLL-HYDE
feature this issue is the flash from that
CinderFella Jerry Lewis that his next
comedy will be a satire on Robert Louis
Stevenson's horror classic. It's any-
body's guess at this point what the title
will be. Our guess is DR. JERRY &.
MR. HYDE.
sinking sensation
Geo Pal has found ATLANTIS, THE
LOST CONTINENT, and wiU soon display
his fabled island of marvels to the public.
Pal, himself, described ATLANTIS to me
before the preview as "science fiction in the
past."
If you liked the sea raider of Capt. Nemo
in Disney's 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER
THE SEA, you will thrill to the metal fish
form of Pal's Atlantean submarine.
If you remember WeUs "Island of Dr.
Moreau". or Chas. Laughton's House of
Pain on THE ISLAND OF LOST SOULS.
you will chill to see the reverse of evolution
(in color) in ATLANTIS, as men are hyp-
notically regressed in the House of Fear un-
til they turn into manimalshairy crea-
tures with clawed hands who can still sham-
ble upright but whose heads have the horns
of bulls, the snouts of pigs, the pointed ears
of other beasts.
If you enjoyed the Victorian construc-
tion of the Time Machine in Pal's last pic-
ture of the same name, you'll be pleased by
the appearance of the green-crystal destruc-
toray machine which shoots a red beam of
vaporization that disintegrates everything
in its pathships, statues, people, winged
men . . . anything and anybody except the
villain. Oh, the villain gets wiped out by
his own weapon, alright, but he doesn't go
up in a hot pufT of smoke like all else the
death-ray touches, perhaps because his hide
is so tuff the ray can only skim away his
skin and blood, leaving him in all his bare
wickedness, mere sin and bones.
Were fiying men mentioned a minute
ago? Yes. these aerial policemen with their
Icarian cloaks constitute a genuine flving
squad, like flyers out of FLASH GORDON.
Spectacle-wise, ATLANTIS is prodigal.
You'll see QUO VADIS-size crowds, ant-
hordes from THE NAKED JUNGLE,
Pompeiian pyrotechnics and the greatest
Hb pM..>. wmtut bte k piM > * flto kM> Im bcMM > Hy 10^ Tony EaituMS la BIAl M
MtlManHH (In Ft
Mai 4wtar1liv <).
Mexican Talon Scout singles ouf two actors for scarring roles i
MONSTER FROM THE HOLLOW MOUNTAIN.
South of tlie Border beostern, THE
destruction of a city since Ned Mann shook
down New York in DELUGE.
A real Island FUng.
going
down
As long as we're in deep water already we
might as well be all at sea and report on the
watery melons that are being prepared for
you to sink your teeth into.
There's JOURNEY TO THE BOTTOM
OF THE SEA.
HERCULES IN THE CONQUEST OF
ATLANTIS.
Curtis Harrington's NIGHT TIDE (for-
merly listed as THE GIRL FROM BE-
NEATH THE SEA)
.
CAPTAIN NEMO AND THE FLOAT-
ING CITY.
Jules Verne's MYSTERIOUS ISLAND.
Jerome Bixby's SEA DEMON.
ATLANTIS 20,000 BC (American-Inter-
national).
DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTROM
(Alex Gordon interprets Poe). And Gor-
don's THE AMPHIBIANS.
BODY SNATCHER Boris KarlofF mokes off with the bed-
ding as he heads for the nearest laundromat to have his
slightly moldy corpse dry-cleaned.
coming up
Shooting for the sky is MOM with its
$150,000 purchase of the priceless talent of
Ra> Bradbury (whose "Life on Other
Worlds" feature millions read in LIFE late
last year) . The incomparable Bradbury has
been busy on the Studio lot transforming
a number of his most fotogenic Mars plots
into a screenplay of his oft-published col-
lection of short classics known as THE
MARTIAN CHRONICLES. Cinerama is
hinted for this Special.
KING KONG himself will return after
an absence of a whole generation to thrill
the world anew in an adventure with Pro-
metheus. Original animator maestro Willis
O'Brien will handle the very special Special
Effects for this one. If it's as good as its
daddy, they'll be televising revivals of it on
Space Stations and the Moon by the time
196rs newborns are teenagers!
Scriptwork on RIP VAN WINKLE IN
THE 21st CENTURY has been handed
Jim Harmon, man who must be sci-fi field's
hottest property according to Horace (Gal-
axy) Gold's description of him as "a Ve-
suvius of a talent . . . good for a giant flow
of flaming literary lava for decades to
really
BIG ONES
Just hear Ed Sullivan in your mind's ear
as we tell you about:
A. Merritt's 7 FOOTPRINTS TO SA-
TAN, picked for English production!
A sequel planned to THE TIME MA-
CHINE! (RETURN OF THE TIME
TRAVELER)
.
Remake scheduled of THE OLD DARK
HOUSE (it originaUy starred Karloff,
Laughton and Massey).
Karloff, Rathbone, other Horror Greats
beine sought for cameo roles in THE SCA-
RAB, which brings together Frankenstein,
Jack the Ripper, Dr. Jekyll, Sheriock
Holmes and many others in the most mon-
strous box-ofifice attraction ever contrived
for marquee-busting.
THE LOST WORLD finds a foiiowup
feature planned for itself.
V
Four Black Sheep do their stuff in THE BLACK SLEEP. That's Lon Chaney Jr. playing Mario Lanxa hitting a
Hi "C": Tor Johnson plays Boldilocks with the lipper on the back of his head in case he wants to get some
brains: and the beard boy is John Carradine. who finds the whole proceedings as funny as a crutch.
the hidden face
of horror
THE MASK OF THE DEMON is adapt-
ed from a short story, "The Vij", by Rus-
sian writer Nicolal Gogol. The picture opens
in the 18th century at the grim trial of
Princess Vajda, accused of witchcraft. The
chief deputy of the jury is the Princess'
own brother and before dying the sorceress
puts a curse on her entire family.
A century later a Dr. Choma and his
young assistant Gorodec on their way to
Moscow pass thru an eerie forest dominated
by a huge old castle. Despite the admoni-
tion of Nikita, the frightened coach driver
who tries desperately to warn the men
against the accursed place, the two enter
the castle. Deep in a dark and crumbling
catacomb the pair discovers the grave of
the sorceress. In a coffin, her face covered
by a mask of bronze, lies the hundred-years-
dead body of the witch.
Dr. Choma is surprised, in removing the
mask, to find preserved the face of a beau-
tiful woman. During the removal of the
brass covering the doctor is sUghtly wound-
ed and some drops of blood fall into the
coffin.
Later, after Choma, his assistant and the
reluctant Nikita have left the cellars of the
dead, there is a horrifying sign of life. The
fresh blood has revivified the "sleeping" sor-
Gorodec meets Katia Vajda in the castle.
She introduces herself as the granddaugh-
ter of the Princess. Gorodec becomes ro-
13
"Who's hitfen who?" (From THE CAT-WOMAN).
Notre Dame's chief export seems to be Hunchbacks.
Lon Chaney was the original, Anthony Quinn the latest,
in between came Charles Lauqhtonand here he is,
as Quasimodo, THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME.
mantically interested in Katia, remains be-
hind for the nite when Dr. Choma leaves
for the nearby village.
That nite strange and frightening things
take place at Castle Vajda:
Katia's father dies tragically.
Katia's brother falls from a cliff.
The butler is found hanged in his room.
And even Dr. Choma, when he returns to
the castle, is transformed into a vampire!
The next nite, lured by an evil force great-
er than her will, Katia finds herself face to
face in the foul catacomb with the resurrect-
ed Vampire Princess.
But there is a happy ending.
The film is of Italian origin, titled LA
MASCHERA DEL DEMONIO in the
original.
This has been a report by Gio Scogna-
millo, who just married a vamp (not, we
trust, a vampire) and to whom the staf! of
FM extends its heartiest congratulations.
"things"
to come
MARTIAN EYE bv Ted Johnstone . . .
TASTE OF FEAR with Christopher Lee
. . . JOURNEY TO THE 7th PLANET,
scripted by lb Melchior . . . JOURNEY
INTO THE UNKNOWN, directed by lb
Melchior for David Hewitt of Independent
Artists.
Hammer's CURSE OF THE WERE-
WOLF . . . Castle's HOMICIDAL ... An
Irwin Allen TV series, HOUSE OF
GHOSTS . . . Japan's MADAME WHITE
SNAKE.
Italian: THE MILL OF THE STONE
MAIDENS.
Scandinavian: REPTILICUS.
German-Jugoslavian: HORRORS OF
SPIDER ISLAND.
Jules Verne's 5 WEEKS IN A BAL-
LOON, THE MASTER OF THE WORLD.
British: THE MAN IN THE MOON.
More American: DONDI GOES TO
THE MOON. THIS TIME TOMORROW.
THE JUPITER PROJECT by, of all coin-
cidences, a James Warren but not the pub-
lisher of VAMOJJS MONSTERS.
THE HANDS OF ORLOC.
THE EXPERIMENT OF DR. ZAHN.
THE HUNCHBACK OF ROME.
THE COUCH of Robert Bloch.
HGWeUs' COUNTRY OF THE BLIND.
And REVOLT OF THE TRIFFIDS.
END
Pravicw of Things fo come: Oliver Reed as the Cursed One in THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF, A Uni-
versal shocker we'll be seeing this summer.
the man
[ill
thousand
faces
left one
to replace
^B
Chaney Jr. in his bst-reinmberd, most dramatic rol* as th powerful but ehildliko moron in OF MICE
ANDMEN <1939).
,7
His Father was a Living Legend: a
Hunchback, a blind man, a 100-year-old
Mandarin, a ventriloquist, an ape-man, a
mad scientist, an armless freak, a human
vampire. . .
It is hard to follow in your Father's foot-
steps when he may have been a spider or a
bat; or, worse than that, have had no legs
at all!
Lon Chaney Sr., Master Monster No. 1
died in 1930.
Lon Chaney Jr. made his first screen ap-
pearance 2 years later, in 1932, at the age
of 26.
Born Creiehton Tull Chaney in Okla-
homa City. Oklahoma, in 1906, the son of
the King of Characterizations was destined
to become known to the film world as Lon
Chaney Jr.
he died a
thousand times
His Father was in pictures 17 years, ap-
peared in approximately 135 productions.
Today, as he looks back over 28 years in
the motion picture industry, Lon Chaney
Jr. can say. "Dieing has been my living,"
for he has been killed time and again, and
in fart one of his films was called I DIED
A THOUSAND TIMES!
Lon Jr. has been shot, stabbed, strangled,
electrocuted, drowned, burned and general-
ly killed in so many ways, only to return to
menace still another horrified heroine, that
it was inevitable he should be cast in the
role of THE INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN.
But before we get too deep into a con-
sideration of the cinematic career of Lon
Chaney Jr., let us turn back the clock to
the time when he was iust a moviegoeror
even earlierinstead of a movie actor.
ham and
hot water
Rudolph Valeittfno? I
ago.
18
, flM ChMwy Jr. ml 3 dMrfM
Creighton found out in the first 7 years of
his life that his Father was a "ham", an
actor. Junior toured the country with
Senior, and as a young boy got the smell of
greasepaint in his nostrils as he watched his
pop perform in stock companies thruout the
middle western states.
When Lon Chaney Sr. entered motion
pictures. Jr. entered hi schoolHollywood
High School. Upon completion of his stud-
ies there he became associated with, of all
things, a Los Angeles water heater business!
Can you imagine the loss to the world if
today Lon Jr. were President of the Creigh-
ton Chaney Champion Hot Water Co. in-
stead of a 28-year-veteran of motion pic-
tures? We can indeed be tankful that he
chose to get a different kind of hot water!
frankenstein ... the
mummy . . . dracula
Lon Chaney Sr. had been the world's hot-
test horror property. Properly, when he
died, his son should have taken his place.
But it was to be 2 years before Jr. stepped
before a camera. In the meantime Boris
KarlofE and Bela Lugosi; and. to a lesser
extent, Claude Rains; came to the fore as
exDonents of horror in FRANKENSTEIN.
THE INVISIBLE MAN. THE MUMMY,
DRACULA, THE BRIDE OF FRANK-
ENSTEIN, THE OLD DARK HOUSE
and other early Universal hits. I^on Chaney
Jr. would one dav act for Universal in vari-
ous versions of DRACULA. FRANKEN-
STEIN and THE MUMMY, but his earli-
est emoting was for RKO in action and ad-
venture pictures like BIRD OF PARA-
DISE (1932). LUCKY DEVILS (with BiU
Boyd: 1933) . SCARLET RIVER and SON
OF THE BORDER {1933 westerns with
Tom Keene).
Lon Jr. starred in an RKO serial, THE
LAST FRONTIER, a brawling bloody
thriller, in the early '30s.
In 1934 he starred in Monogram's first
version of SIXTEEN FATHOMS DEEP
14 years later Lloyd Bridges starred in a re-
make of the famous submarine adventure
film, with Lon playing the part of the vil-
lain.
Meanwhile, Chaney the man was dis-
tinguishing himself in the fields of amateur
wrestling, swimroing and tennis playing,
while his hobbies at the time were himting
and fishing.
Around this period he also appeared in
THE SHADOW OF SILK LENNOX
(gangster fibn) , CAPTAIN HURRI-
CANE. THE THREE MUSKETEERS
TkU eharaefcrizatton as THE WOLF-MAN won Cliany
Jr. til* New York TV Award as Monster of the Year in
1959.
As Hava, the tongueless Coptoin of the Guards, in
COBRA WOMAN. Technicolor adventure thriller with
Jon Hall, Maria Montei and Sabu.
'i
of Chaney as SON OF DRACULA.
(John Wayne's starring serial for Mascot,
an adventure romp of ruff 'n' readv ForeiEm
Tvegionnaires)
and THE SINGING COW-
BOY, the latter a Gene Autry musical west-
em wherein Lon Jr. played a villainous
rancher.
twenty
years
of terror
It was roughly 20 years ago that Lon
Chaney Jr. began to appear in horror roles
and build a reputation in the league with
Peter Lorre. Basil Rathbone, George Zucco,
Lionel Atwill and other regulars of "irregu-
lar" characterizations.
In MAN-MADE MONSTER, based on
the story "The Electric Man", he absorbed
a dose of energy that made him almost in-
vincible
a terrifying prospect for his en-
emies.
In ONE MILLION B.C. (Before Cha-
ney) Lon Jr. was a caveman surrounded by
prehistoric monsters. In this action epic of
ancient times Lon shared dangers with Vic-
tor Mature and took quite a goring at the
huge deadly tusks of an enraged mastodon,
giant elephant-like beast of the primitive
world.
Then Lon Chaney Jr. created a charac-
terization for which he was to be long re-
membered. "He is best known in horror
films for his role as THE WOLFMAN
(1941) and in sequels to this film," Samuel
M. Sherman (FM's Film Historian) has
said, pointing out that: "It is quite inter-
esting that Lon Jr. and his Father should
be so different in direct character types and
yet in monster-type roles evoke the same
tvpe of pity. Lon Sr.'s films always had him
playing a monster who was hideous but yet
one to be pitied. His son brought across this
same quality when he began playing horror
parts."
;'-?^
%)f
'MH
1
^^^H
HE^
-iu
r^
ml^l
^Ki|
yi^^l
1 E
The gory result of Lon's fall from Ivory Terror In ONE MILLION BC.
Mexican Mad Lab has Lon Jr. as House Guest in HOUSE
OF TERROR.
This fugitive foto from our companion periodical.
WILDEST WESTERN, shows Lon Chaney Jr. as Indian in
Republic's 1956 production of DANIEL BOONE, TRAIL-
BLAZER, with Uruce Bennett (one-time Tananl.
the ghoulden
years
1941 found Lon Jr. making a hit in THE
WOLFMAN. Because of his success in the
lycanthropic makeup, the next year he was
a-isigned the task of filling Boris Karlofl's
boots and
MONSTER!
But
a monster in modem times? A mon-
ster has repeatedly been rumored in the
Loch Ness of Scotland, but in the waters
oflf the coast of Ireland?
Nevertheless, a man is dead of heart fail-
ure.
Ryan & Slade decide to investigate. Se-
cretly, they dive; almost immediately Slade
is attacked by the tentacle of an octopus.
It is huge and fearsome, the octopus, but
not unknownnot quite a monster to
freeze the heart. Ryan, swimming to Slade's
assistance, also is enmeshed by the sea-
beast, but niianages to pierce a vital organ
with his powerful harpoon gun, killing the
octopus.
Recuperating under water from their near
brush with death, Ryan & Slade keep a
wary eye on a killer whale which swims
restlessly above them. Suddenly, a huge
shadow darkens the fathoms above them.
There is a swirling of water that whirls
Ryan & Slade around like puppets and the
water deepens in darkness to blood red!
the sea god
That nite the owner of the sea shadow
makes its first appearance on the island.
^iiairr'^^^''HiMiiiffii"if
GOIIG>0 is aftar a hand-outaod it's biqgcr than boot of hs.
'Hie islanders scream its name: Ogra!the
Monster of Nara. We come to know it by
another name: GORGO.
Carson Bingham, in the pocketbook he
has written about the King Bros, produc-
tion, tells graphically of the moments of
horror when Gorgo is first glimpsed. In the
author's own words:
"The sea lifted up under the flickering
procession of funeral boats, and a form that
was neither water nor earth nor human
reared into the air.
"Rooted to the spot, I stared at what
seemed to be a huge, massive shape writh-
ing out of the water.
"I could see the outline of a huge body,
some 20 feet high.
"
'My God!' I cried. 'It's huge! As big as
a house!'
"
And so it is. Waked from an ages long
sleep by the underwater explosion, the gor-
gosaurus has surfaced in a strange new
world, a world where frightened shouting
men shoot at it. But the rifie bullets bounce
from Gorgo's tough hide like ping-pong
balls. Only fire affects Gorgo, and when
Ryan & Slade lead the men in throwing
burning brands at the incredible beast, with
an angry flick of its long prehensile tail it
turns back to the sea and disappears be-
neath the waves.
booty and riw
beast
Worth more than all the gold on the
GORGO and wattr don't mlK. And this skin-diver i
ready to broadcast It to all tfao ships at s*a.
If GORGO doesn't have an iron stomach already, he
soon will have!
ocean floor would be Gorgo, captured and
alive. Ryan & Slade realize this and set out
to ensnare the saurian in a steel net. In a
harrowing encounter they are successful
and word of their astoxmding feat makes
headlines and telecasts thruout the entire
civilized world.
The Irish government sends 2 ranking
paleontologists to meet the now famous pair
and their prize possession. The paleontolo-
gists intend to claim the bve specimen for
the University of Dublin but the partnere
who captured it have a more lucrative dis-
position in mind.
Slade & Ryan sail to London with their
supersaurian and make a very profitable
monetary arrangement with the owner of
Dorkin's Circus.
The lad Sean, an orphan since his father
died of fright upon first glimpsing Gorgo,
has been more or less adopted by Slade &
Ryan. Sean feels a keen sense of sadness for
the shackled creature and attempted to set
it free before his friends ever got it to Lon-
don. He had been stopped in time but his
action had resulted in the death of a watch-
man who was mortally mangled a swipe of
the beast's mighty claw.
At the circus Gorgo almost breaks loose.
He does kill an elephant in a strange battle
of prehistoric beast pitted against modem
behemoth. It is at this time that Slade for
the first time has misgivings. Slade himself
now joins Sean in an attempt to set Gorgo
free but Ryan thwarts the plan and gets
into a fight with his friend.
grow, gorgo,
grow
Startling word comes from Dublin: Gorgo
is but a baby! This huge creature, it devel-
ops, is only an infant. If the world's biggest
child is already 65'
long, how big may its
parent not have been?
Its parent!
If Gorgo is a newborn saurian, then it's
suddenly {and frighteningly) apparent that
it may have had a mother or father nearby.
Based on the age and measujsements of
Gorgo Jr., mama or papa monster would
measure about
we recommend GORGO.
END
fhaf fhey said Couldn'i Be Done/
FAMOUS MONSTERS accepted the challenge of the "im-
possihle"! Daring reporters were dispatched to the Arc-
tic. Some never came hack. We spent 6 months and
many thousands of cents to discoverbecause millions
of YOU asked tor ITfotos of the fabulous THING!
But that's not ail! Not by a iong shot-or a medium
shot or a cioseup.
Not content with showing you the Actuai Face & Form
of THE THING, we tiring youstarting next issueour
first Two Part Serial: the first instalment of the sensa-
tional 14,OG0 word horror classic, Who Goes There?, on
...lich the motion picture THE THING FROM ANOTHER
WORLD was basedespecially condensed tor our read-
ers.
Enjoyed the movie? Wait'll you read the story! John
W. Campbell Jr., one of the greatest imaginative minds
of our century, wrote it. And, rather then sacrific"
^-
portant foto space for it, we will run it in a smaller type
than usualthus offering you a bonus of approximately
7,000 words extra in EACH of our next 2 numbers! At no
raise in price, words that collectors have paid $3 and
more to read, yours for the usual 35c! Plus pictures of
THE THING itself.
IN OUR
NEXT ISSUE
'ON NEWSSTANDS
APRIL 10TH
or the firsf time FAMOUS
'ONSTERS tears aside the
ei\ of mystery surrounding
the filmizations of Robert
Lcuis Stevenson's famous
*orv tn reveal it hos a
'or/d record having been
filmed FIFTEEN TIMES'.
i
in IS so full of fog that
brains, set boundaries
on. As men of science, we should
and bold enough to peer beyond
onders it conceals.
John Borrymora (atad at tabU) will seen bury mer* of his frlMdf In sllmt vortlon of DR. JEKYLL ft
MR. HYDE.
strives for the nobilities of life; this we call
his good self. The other seeks an expression,
of impulses that binds him with some dim
animal relation with the earth; this we may
call the bad. These two carry on an eternal
struggle in the nature of man, yet they are
chained together; and that chain spells re-
pression to the evil, remorse to the good.
"Now, if these two selves could be sep-
arated from each other, how much better
the good in us might be, what heights it
might scale; and the so-called evU, once lib-
erated, would fulfill itself and trouble us no
more. I believe that the day may not be
far off when this separation will be possible.
In my experiments I have found that cer-
tain chemicals have the power and the
"
The scene shifts.
Some nites after his lecture Henry Jekyll
sits brooding in his laboratory. His fiancee
is away on a protracted stay and he is rest-
less. His man-servant has suggested some
kind of female entertainment but a gentle-
man in the doctor's position cannot risk it.
Yet, unbidden, unwanted desires keep kind-
ling little fires in Dr. Jekyll's human body
until at last, recaUing his discovery, he de-
cides to put it to the test.
Locking his door against intrusion, he sets
about, step by careful step, mixing dry
chemicals and liquids to create the solution
which he believes will liberate the evil which
is festering in his system; until, at last, the
potion completely prepared, he stands be-
fore a mirror and gulps the contents of the
bubbling, steaming glass.
oldon Lewis In on early silent edition
. He never should have drunk that
Gad, who dotMrs. Hyde?
In fear and wonder he watches the re-
markable transformation.
Contrary to theory, the evil side is assert-
ing itself!
He groans and chokes and his facial mus-
cles struggle to retain his natural appear-
ance as his face and form undergo a dark
and terrible change. As Stevenson described
him, and writer John Mason Brown later
summed him up, he had "something wrong
about him, something displeasing, down-
right detestable and deformed. He was
troglodytic, ape-like, wicked-looking, mon-
key-like, a rat, shocking, abnormal and mis-
begotten," In the words of the author, "he
had Satan's signature upon his face."
terrifying
transformation
How effective was Fredric March's
change from the gentle Dr. Jekyil to the
horrid Mr. Hyde? First rate! It would be
difficult to imagine a better realization of
the role. And it was accomplished in almost
direct view of the audience, with very little
camera cheating. Half a dozen visual
changes were gradually observed as his
hands turned brown and hairy, his fingers
grew nails long and claw-like, his white
teeth became black and protruding, his eyes
watery and sunken and dark-rimmed, his
hair a bushy mat, his body hunched. In a
few fantastic minutes a fine figure of a man,
thru camera magic, has become a coarse,
gross, bestial creature, the evil manifesta-
tion of his nature which the doctor calls
Mr. Hyde.
Oblivious to the rain, this evil caricature
of Dr. Jekyil strides out into the nite and
at a cheap dance hall forces his attentions
on a girl named Ivy who is helpless before
his overpowering personality. She doesn't
dream that this brutish male is the refined
and handsome Dr. Jekyil who earlier that
same evening had politely tended to her
when .she had been slightly injured.
in horror's grip
Poor Ivy is haunted more and more by
Mr. Hyde as time goes by and Jekyll's
fiancee postpones their wedding, driving
him in desperation to dreadful deeds of
violence with Ivy. At last, almost beside
herse'f with fear, Ivy calls on Dr. Jekyil
and pleads with him to help her escape from
the domination of the dreadful Mr. Hyde.
Dr. Jekyil is horrified when he sees him-
m
"A glass of milk each nite btfer* retiring is my secret for good strong teeth." reveals Mr. Hyde tn the
Frederic March version.
^^
"I knew I'm nof Tony Curtis," says Frederic March to Miriam Hopkins in Hie 1932 edilioii. "but then
who is?"
self thru the eyes of this distraught woman
and determines to have nothing further to
do with his formula. In all sincerity he
promises Ivy that she will never see the
wicked creature Hyde again but JekyU
reckons without the cumulative power of
the drug he has been taking, which now
causes his transformation even without an
added dose!
Soon after Ivy's visit, Jekyll's monster-
self irrepressibly surges forth! As Hyde, he
seeks out Ivy and she shrieks "You must be
the Devil in human form!" when he informs
her he knows all about her visit to Dr.
Jekyll. "Impossible!" she cries; "I was
alone with the doctor in his room
you
couldn't possibly know of our conversation."
To which Hyde replies: "I am going to tell
you my secreta secret so great that those
who know it cannot share it with me . . .
and live." Afterward he strangles Ivy,
Quickly, now, the story comes to its fa-
miliar climax, with Hyde locked out of the
laboratory and unable to get at the antidote
which will return him to normalcy. He is
forced to reveal his secret to his best friend,
Lanyon. Then, temporarily returned to him-
self, Jekyll goes to his sweetheart, but the
change comes over him and he kills her
father. He realizes now he is done for, and
36
races for his laboratory, where the police
finally catch up with him and kill him.
In death, the evil features of Hyde dis-
solve, leaving the corpse of the unfortunate
Dr. Jekyll.
hydie's other
hides
John Barrymore relied less on extrava-
gant makeup and more on exaggerated act-
ing in his interpretation of Mr. Hyde.
Spencer Tracy's changes were more psy-
chological than physical, altho his features
were brutalized by the makeup depart-
ment. Outstanding in this version was a
symbolical delirium sequence with Lana
Turner and Ingrid Bergman.
DER JANUSKOPF (JANUS-FACED)
was the name of the German adaptation of
1920 directed by F. W. Mumau and featur-
ing Conrad Veidt and Bela Lugosi. Janus
was a mythical Roman god believed to have
2 heads, and indeed no one could argue that
Dr. Jekyll was not indeed "two-faced". It
is not known at this time (perhaps some
knowledgeable reader can inform us) who
played the role of Jekyll-Hyde in JANUS-
FACED, but it seems most probable it was
I was just Cestvllophenlnq," explains herein* In harrewlnq moment from A&C MEET DR. J&H.
Long Caney? No, Mr. Hyd* In th Abbott & Cott*llo
spoof of Stevenson's story.
"You could be the new Scarfoce. " says Mr. Hyde, as he
offers to do battle with chap who critieiied his good
looks.
Conrad Veidt as he was better known than
Bela Lugosi at the time.
Ten years ago Louis Hayward portrayed
THE SON OF DR. JEKYLL and in 1957
Gloria Talbot was THE DAUGHTER OF
DR. JEKYLL. Same year ('57) United Ar-
tists released a film called THE VAMPIRE
which, altho not an actual adaptation of
"JekyU & Hyde", was sufficiently in the
genre for Variety's reviewer to observe:
"Combo of the 'JekyU & Hyde' and 'Dracu-
la' themes make this a good entry for the
horror market. Makeup of John Beal rem-
iniscent of the 'Mr. Hyde' character."
Five years ago it was announced that a
musical version of J&H in the form of an
opera was being prepared for Broadway but
the project apparently died aborning for
nothing further was heard of Dr. JekyU &
Mr. Hyde in Harlem.
In France, Jean Marais (of BEAUTY
AND THE BEAST fame) is .scheduled to
star in THE TESTAMENT OF DR. COR-
DELIER, based on J&H.
jekyll-hyde I96I
The latest version of J&H is known as
THE TWO FACES OF DR. JEKYLL and
comes to us, in Technicolor, from England.
Another Hammer Film, it presents Chris-
topher Lee: but, peculiarly, he does not play
the dual role as one would expect. Instead,
a newcomer to horrorPaul Massiees-
says the double characterization. Our Brit-
ish reporter, Alan Dodd, informs us that:
There's a switch in this one: whereas in
the previous versions the transformation
from Jekyll to Hyde has been one of hand-
someness to ugliness, in the new picture it
is quite the reversebearded to begin with,
Jekyll becomes a smooth-shaven good-look-
ing young man-about-town as Mr. Hyde!
But, as Hyde, this gentleman of the Vic-
torian era displays something less than Vic-
torian maimers.
Quite something less!
Dr. Jekyll, experimenting on himself to
separate man's 2 distinct personalities, suc-
ceeds in freeing his evil valence from all re-
strictions of morality, and as a kind of suave
and sinister Dorian Gray goes on a spree of
sin and savagery.
Two people die at Hyde's hands.
He drives his own (that is, Dr. Jekyll's)
wife to suicide.
And he adds arson to his previous "ac-
complishments".
r
Christopher Lee is seen as one of Hyde's
victims, a snake dancer's serpent being the
cause of his shuddersome death. Dawn Ad-
dams plunges to her death and another
young lady is strangled. Altogether, Mr.
Hyde gives a good {?) account of himself.
And so, as we sink into our coffin at sun-
rise, it is with this last lingering shot while
we prepare for our daily bat-nap: will JekyU
& Hyde be back a number of times more in
the next quarter century? We shouldn't be
surprised.
The Many Faces 0/ JekyU k Hyde
Chronology Courtesy Walter W. Lee Jr. and his
SCIENCE-FICTION AND FANTASY FILM CHECKLIST
1908SeUg silent short.
Tracy, Ingrid Bergman & Lana
1910Danish silent short.
Turner.
1912Silent short with James Cruze. 1951SON OF DR. JEKYLL, Louis Hay-
1913Silent short with King Baggot (Im- ward; Columbia.
perial US)
.
1953-ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET
1919Sheldon Lewis in full length silent. DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDEBoris
1920DER JANUSKOPF (JANUS-
Karloff, Universal.
FACED) . German sQent. 1957DAUGHTER OF DR. JEKYLL
1920John Barrymore version, silent, (or with Gloria Talbott, John Agar; Al-
Famous Players Paramount. lied Artists.
1932Fredric March Academy Award Win- 1961THE TWO FACES OF DR.
ning version; talking, directed by JEKYLL with Paul Massie & Chris-
Rouben Mamoulian; Paramount. topher Lee; Technicolor; Hammer.
1939Pixilated Pictures version. 1961-THE TESTAMENT OF DR. COR-
1941MGM version starring Spencer DELIER, Jean Marais, French.
END
!'
^
k
'''
NOW ON FILM
-
AVAILABLE FOR THE FIRST TIME!
ANOTHER
FM
MM
EXCLUSIVE
:
#
jEir'""
JEKYLL' HYDE
One of the most startling scenes Item, this grotesque dramatic
ever produced during the early scene is now available on either
*"""
days of silent films was the mag 8 or 16 mm film stripbrought $4.95
nificient change accomplished by to you through the efforts of
SHELDON LEWIS as he underwent FAMOUS MONSTERS. Every collec-
I6mm
the eerie transformation from OR. tor and horror film fan will want a
25
JEKYLL to the frightening MR. to own this thrilling role of rare *
HYDE. Truly a superli Collectors film!
: ^
r FAMOUS MONSTERS, Dept.MO-11
wAiiB ruAirr Ac
!
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YOUIC CHOlU Or i
Rush my JEKYLL and HYDE film to me fay return
TUDII 1 lUr Ell U
' "^^''' ' s'l'^'osc H95 for 8 mm or $6.25 for 16 mm,
inKILLIIlb riLffl
;
plus 25c postage and shipping charges.
i 1 want the following film size 8 mm 'IS mm
50
^ui Sm 1
N
Of
I Address
100
ren \bmm
1 state
L
the weird
and wonderful
pictures
of
ilLtllM
HE WAS THE MASTER OF THE MACABRE.
PROOF? HIS WRIHEN WORDS HAVE BEEN
FILMED OVER A QUARTER HUNDRED TIMES!
by Giovanni Scognamillo
Edgar Allan Poe was only on this earth
40 years. Bom in 1809, he died in 1849. But
in the 60-odd years of its life the motion
picture screen has brought Poe back to life
approximately 30 times.
Sixty years after his untimely death Poe's
strange and tragic existence was portrayed
for the first time (1909) in a short feature
simply bearing his name. Realized by one
of the greatest, if not the ^eatest, names
in motion picture historythe late David
Wark GrifTithEDGAR ALLAN POE was
an American Mutoscope & Biograph Co.
Production starring Herbert Jost as Poe.
Five years later, in 1914, a more complete
attempt to recreate Poe's mastery of hor-
ror and suspense was undertaken in THE
AVENGING CONSCIENCE. This was a
3-in-l adaptation (by Griffith himself) of
Poe's short stories, "The Tell-Tale Heart"
I
CKiKTfte Gortlla wffh a Human Brain Is the transtatien of the sign in French over the tntrancaway
^
to the sideshow of Dr. Mirakle in the 1932 version of Poe's MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE.
QuoHi the Raven: "What's up, doe?" tela Lugosi in a
scan* from THE RAVEN.
Half his fac* and body paralyted by Uiqosi, Karloff
arousos combination of pity and horror in IrMO War*.
(THE RAVEN)
and "The Pit and the Pendulum", and the
poem, "Annabel Lee". The trio starred
Henry B. Walthall, Dorothy Gish. Donald
Crisp and Blanche Sweet. THE AVENG-
ING CONSCIENCE seems to have been
the first fantastic horror show produced in
America and also an ingenious amalgama-
tion of Poe's basic themes: murder and re-
morse ("The Tell-Tale Heart"), mental
anguish ("The Pit and the Pendulum")
and haunting affection for his wife Vir-
ginia ("Annabel Lee")
.
At about the same time, in France.
Maurice Toumeur directed LE SYSTEME
DU DOCTEUR GOUDRON ET DU PRO-
FESSEUR PLUME (THE SYSTEM OF
DR. TARR & PROFESSOR FETHER)
and in America THE MURDERS IN THE
RUE MORGUE reached the screen for the
first time via the direction of Sol A. Rosen-
berg. Of the French fibn historians report
that it. was more grotesque than frighten-
ing.
Lost and all but forgotten is a 1915 film-
ing of THE RAVEN. Starring Henry B.
Walthall, it was an Essanay production di-
rected by Geo. C. Hazelton.
In 1927 &
'28
nonprofessional and experi-
mental filmakers tried their luck with Poe.
First Geo. Kelin directed THE TELL-
TALE HEART (later on, in 1941, it was
Jules Dassin's turn with a 2-ree] short fea-
turing Jos. Schildkraut for MOM), follow-
ed by THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF
USHER, directed by Jas. Sibley Watson
with art direction by Melville Webber. Both
pictures were highly interesting studies in
recapturing thru purely filmic effects, dis-
torted camera angles, elaborate and arty
shots, contrasted editing and impression-
istic art direction, the morbid and horrify-
ing climate of Foe. Also in *28,
in France,
Jean Epstein professionally directed THE
FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, with
emphasis more on the architectural prob-
lems, in recreating the morbid, disturbing
and nightmarish atmosphere of the castle,
than in focusing on the psychic problems of
Roderick Usher.
In 1942 teenage Curtis Harrington, who
has since made his mark in the experimental
and surrealistic film world and is now mov-
ing into the realm of professional fantasy
scripter and producer-director
young Har-
rington made a version of USHER in which
he foreshadowed Tony (PSYCHO) Perk-
"1
am not a sideshow charlatan," Dr. Miraklo ttiinks to himself as he ponders his Mperiments wfth the
great ape and records his thoughts in his diary. (MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE)
ins by playing a dual role, masculine & fem-
inine. In 1948 another USHER was made
in England and of course the Vincent Price
(star), Richard Matheson (scripter), Burt
Schoenberg (art) technicolor version of
1960 was one of the big horror hits of last
year.
The tale of THE TELL-TALE HEART
was told again in 1934 as BUCKET OF
BLOOD, a British production directed by
Brian Desmond Hurst with Norman Dry-
den; and UFA did it in 1954 as a color "car-
toon" short which attained stature.
Paul (THE GOLEM) Wegener starred
in 1933 in a German trio titled LIVING
DEAD, comprised of Poe's "Black Cat" and
"TaiT & Fether" plus Stevenson's "Suicide
Club".
In America 1932,
'34
&
'35
were Poe years
with Robt. Florey directing Bela Lugosi in
MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE, Ed-
gar Uimer directing Karloff & Lugosi in
THE BLACK CAT, and Karioff & Lugosi
being reunited in THE RAVEN (directed
by Louis Friedlander) . THE RAVEN was
remade in
'48
by Westport International,
English Lippert
'53
and a special short di-
rected by Lew Jacobs in
'54.
The late Maria Montez starred in THE
MYSTERY OF MARIE ROGET, directed
for Universal in 1944 by Geo. Wagner.
1948: HISTOIRES EXTRAORDIN-
AIRES (UNUSUAL TALES), a French
grandguigno'esque trio combining "Cask of
Amontillado" and another tale by Poe with
"Ecce Homo" by Thos. de Quincey.
v
I A.
Karloff l> Lu90>r of aeh olbtrs' Hirooti again. This tima In THE BLACK CAT (l34l.
19S4: THE PHANTOM OF THE RUE
MORGUE, Warner color and 3D, with
Steve Forrest as Dupm. Karl Maiden as the
Mad Doctor, Patricia Medina as the hero-
ineand the irreplaceable killer ape.
1956: MANFISH, combination of "The
Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Gold Bug", with
Victor Jory, John Bromfield and Lon Cha-
ney Jr.
Two semi-biographical treatments of
Poe's life have been filmed, THE LOVES
OF EDGAR ALLAN FOE, an unfortunate-
ly rathef boring and unsuccessful film by
Harry Lachman, and THE MAN WITH A
CLOAK, starring Jos. Gotten and Barbara
Stanwyck, directed by Fletcher Markle.
Announced for the future: THE MASK
OF THE RED DEATH (Alex & Ruth Gor-
don). THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM
(Richard Matheson). And an American
Edgar Allan Poe Mystery Theater of Tele-
vision.
Earnestly recommended for filming; A
DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTROM
(Disney, Pal) and THE FACTS IN THE
CASE OF M. VALDMAR (Castle, Ameri-
can-International).
As long as horror films have a vogue,
Edgar Allan Poe will provide steady source
material for first-class fright features. His
classics constitute a rich dark literary loam
in which mandrakes grow and nuggets of
unnerving nightmare lie waiting to be un-
earthed and transferred to the screen.
END
I^..
jl'W
Erik lurnt on his masftr, Bala Lugoit, and the blood
HIIIIBBIBBHWBillBBmMH
lilMMHHSllUimnilJIHIwill
GREAT
MOMENTS
IN HISTORY
ONE MILLION BC: Caveman Vik-Tor Mature Discovers Fire!
"
Sometime Later: A. Square Invents the Wheel!
April 1926: Hugo Gernsback creates First Science Fiction Magazine!
January 1958: Publisher James Warren and Editor Forrest J
Ackerman give birth to FAMOUS MONSTERS!
March 1961: Warren & Ackerman's SPACEMEN hits nevtsstands!
YES. for the legions of FJA Fans who avidly
follow every publication his name Is associated with,
a NEW magazine has been created just for YOU.
Same format as FAMOUS MON-
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SPACEMEN, fho it will
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Its slant will be toward adults as well
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SPACEMEN will be devoted to ar-
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GORDON, THE FORBIDDEN PLANET,
WAR OF THE WORLDS, THIS ISl-AND
EARTH, THE GIRL IN THE MOON and
the whole spectrum of space specta-
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with exciting Guest Appearonces by
ON NEWSSTANDS MARCH 2, 796J
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Rocket do not walk to your
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NAME -
ADDRESS
OTY
STATE
rR.oM
/M^IfRO-yeMEMBERS
Here *e are again with t closet full of ads
from MONSTER CLUB MEMBERS. Old Dr. Acula
himself was interested in a few of the offers
and when last seen was busy writing away on
his papyrus stationery. . . .
MIKE FRISBIE, 608 South Shore Drtve, Clear
Lake, Iowa, wants to hear from anyone who will
sell him Mad magazines 1 to 50and also wants
a Monster Pen Pal. . . . Club Member FRANK
BRUTOFJ. JR. is searching for a 12-year-old girl
Pen Pal. Write to him at Box 426, BurkesviTle.
Kentucky. . . . GARY CROWDUS. G756 Lozier,
Warren, Michigan, wants to buy glossy photos of
monsters (Gary: look for our special announce-
ment in the next issue of FAMOUS MONSTERS
regarrling glossy photos). ... a special request
fof a Monster Pen Pal from BRAOLEY BELL. 160-
45 20tti Road. Whitestone 57, N. Y. . . . California
members will be interested in a little club called
The Transylvanian Ambassadors. This gang is in-
terested in hearing from you about activities of
other clubs, so drop a line to them at the house
of LAMBERT CLAY. 1221 Stickman, La Puente,
California. . . .
Speaking ot local chapters of our Monster Club:
JIM LUCKRITZ Of Dubuque, lowi reports that Ms
outfit now numbers 11 members and Is growing
like the Blob, Contact Jim at 17T0 Elm Street,
Dubuque, Iowa. . . Oh oh . a complaint re-
ceived from JAY PEARCE, 604 New Jersey Avenue,
Peint Pleasant Beach, N. J., who claims we didn't
print his free Club ad. He adds that "two mllllan
ants will be sent to us in the mail if we don't
print his ad in this issue." lay, I guess we last
your ad. Does that mean we get iwimped wfth
ants? Red or black ones? . . ,
Another local chapter of the FM club in Van
Nuys, California: write to W, E. KEELER, at 14655
Gledhill Street, Van Nuys, , . . a word about Our
Most Enthusiastic Fan In New Jersey: CHERYL
PETERSON, who lives at 328 Hudson Street in
Hoboken, N. J. Cheryl counts the days t>etween
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pinned to her bedroom wall. . . . RICHARD E.
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People will get a prompt answer to their letters
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BILL RYAN IR. ot 1603 N, Quebec St., Arlington,
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ington, who has full albums and Individual stamps
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SEE FOR YOURSELF
The make-up thai won fredric Marth
the
Academy Award in 1932
See the Complete Jekyll-Hyde Story
Page 32 of this issue*
a
Mmm