Turn out the lights, sit in the dark and watch these movies. By today’s standards, they are not scary. By the standards of the time, people screamed in the theaters.
Number 1 on my list, I’ve written about before. Dracula with Bela Lugosi, the first well know Dracula, and one imitated more often than any of the others. Lugosi’s vampire became the standard.
Number 2, The Wolfman with Lon Chaney Jr. State of the art special effects of the day when he changed into the Wolfman.
Number 3, Frankenstein with Boris Karloff. Created life goes out of control to destroy its creator and all the things the creator loves.
Number 4, The Mummy with Boris Karloff. Karloff gets to act in this movie and it is worth seeing. His voice and facial expressions are wonderful
Find them, watch them and enjoy.
Happy Halloween
Definitely classic stories. I know what you mean with Bela Lugosi. The Dracula accent is just the actor’s. 🙂
How about the classic Abbott and Costello Meet… series (must have been a handful)
Going to have to find the Abbott and Costello films. I haven’t seen them in years.
Abbott and Costello meet
Frankenstein
The Invisible Man
The Killer (Boris Karloff)
The Mummy
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Captain Kidd
The Keystone Cops
One of my favorites is a movie called “The Univited” (1944) with Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey. Good ghost story.
Other interesting ones:
Cat People (1942) with Simone Simon & Kent Smith
The Spiral Staircase (1945) with Dorthy McGuire, George Brent, & Ethel Barrymore–not really a horror film, but a good suspense film.
Bela Lugosi actually played the “good guy” in a serial called “The Return of Chandu” (1934)
It’s interesting to see but don’t expect any oscar winning performances. The story is pretty lame.
relative 😉 I will bow to your expertise on all things dealing with old movies. Even if we are talking Hitchcock. Except for Harvey…
My all-time favorite scary movie is “The House on Haunted Hill” (1959) — I guess that “dates” me, right? LOL Do you remember the part when blood from the ceiling drips on the woman’s glove?? And then there are the Twilight Zone episodes — how about the one where the monk is tricked into unlocking the cell and as the man emerges and the lightning flashes, he turns into the devil? Those old time movies were the best! Of course, most anything back then was the best……..
Hi John! (Just commenting as requested!)
I admit that I read a lot of blogs – and almost never comment. I just think of it as reading something that someone else has written – elevating all of you to the status of ‘published’ authors 🙂 – and forgetting that people may actually enjoy a response.
It’s shocking to think of myself as a lurker!!
As to your scary movie list, I loved Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu; I don’t know if it’s available on DVD or video, though.
Kate (via YWBB)