Continuing our classic TV Horror Movie run, last night we had "When Michael Calls"(1972), starring Elizabeth Ashley as "Helen Connelly", the divorced mother of a 10-year-old girl. Her ex-husband "Doremus" (Ben Gazzara) is coming to visit. Things are slightly strained over their co-parenting rights, but when he arrives, they get along and even have dinner as a family, just for old times' sake. But then the phone rings, and in any movie with a telephone reference, ones with titles like "When So-and-So Calls" or "The Such-and-Such Caller", or anything regarding phone calls, when it rings, you know there's a psycho on the line. Or a ghost. Everyone knows ghosts can make phone calls. This time it's a little boy who sounds terrified. "Hello, Auntie my Helen? It's me, Michael! I'm so cold, and I'm lost. Won't you come get me?" He's reminiscent of "Bobby" the other night. Helen thinks its a prank, and an unfunny one, because her nephew Michael has been dead for fifteen years. She mentions the call to her ex, Doremus, who suggests it might be "one of those crazy boys up at Greenleaf Asylum. One of them could be playing a trick."
Helen asks her other nephew "Craig" (Michael Douglas) for help. He's the head shrink at Greenleaf, and was also Michael's brother. "No, it couldn't be the boys. They have no access to a telephone." The next night, Michael calls again, frightened and alone. "Come get me, Auntie my Helen. Please, come and find me!" He's using a nickname that only Michael would know: "Auntie my Helen." The script is from a book by John Farris ("The Fury"), who was a big horror novelist of the era, just before Stephen King came along.
Though they were married, Doremus doesn't know as much as he'd like about Helen's family history, which she kept quiet. They divorced because she didn't like living in New York as the wife of a high powered lawyer. We only learn about her relatives from her little daughter Peggy, who tells her father: "Mommy says they were all insane. All except for herself." Doremus digs deeper, asking family friend "Doc Britton" (Larry Reynolds), who runs a cow and bee farm nearby. Doc fills him in. "About 16 years ago, Helen's sister went nuts. The family was worried she was gonna kill herself and take Michael with her, and maybe brother Craig as well, though he was older and could resist. Then their parents died, in an accident I heard, so Helen became her sister's guardian and had her committed to an institution upstate. Michael ran away and died in a blizzard soon after. Craig, the older brother, became a psychiatrist to try and understand the insanity in his family." Doremus then goes to see Craig, who explains that Michael hated his crazy mother. "But obviously he can't be the boy making those phone calls. He's been dead for a very long time." But then an actual little blonde boy, closely resembling Michael, appears in the snow, right after another Michael Call.
There's an awesome Halloween party at the Greenleaf Asylum, smack dab in the middle of this 87 minute flick, that makes it a Ten. It's nostalgic in the way of the post trick-or-treat party at Lucy's house in "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" and has the same color scheme, as well. But at this party, the local sheriff turns up dead, after investigating the death of Doc Britton, who was swarmed by his bees. Doc's weirdo longhair ranch hand is briefly considered a suspect.
Then Michael calls again, and Doremus personally drives out to the woods to find him. And that's all I can tell ya without revealing spoilers that would ruin the suspense. There's a lot of domestic, "divorced parents" stuff interspersed. Whatever happened to Elizabeth Ashley, anyhow? Remember her, with the big, wide-set eyes and soft southern accent? Her voice deepened and got husky as she aged, maybe due to cigarettes. But she was beautiful and was a cover girl in the early 1970s. Regarding the Telephone Movie motif, however, in 1980 a filmmaker finally made a picture with some good advice, called "Don't Answer the Phone!" I mean, it should've been obvious from the get-go. How come it took 'em so long to figure it out? You had all these Phone Call movies, with psychos or ghosts harassing people, and then finally, a director was telling you straight-up: "Don't Answer the Freaking Phone!" Why didn't anyone think of that before? Just don't pick up! Don't respond to dead kids like Bobby or Michael. They're only gonna mess with your head.
Two Huge Thumbs Up for this very scary movie. The picture is very good. ////
The previous night we had "White Zombie"(1932), United Artists entry in the Universal Horror sweepstakes (it was largely shot on Universal's humongous sound stages), and it's nearly as classic as all the great monster films from that studio. It could stand a more energetic pace, perhaps, but then it IS about zombies, and the castle sets are as great as any in 1930s horror. As it opens, young "Neil Parker" (John Harron), an American now living in Haiti, welcomes his fiance "Madeline Short" (Madge Bellamy) to the island. She's just shipped over to join him, ahead of their pending marriage. On the voyage, she met a wealthy and handsome plantation owner, "Charles Beaumont" (Robert Frazer), who insisted she and Neil visit him at his mansion before they get married. Beaumont was charming, so they do it. On their way to his palatial house, they pass a funeral in the middle of the road. "Why are they burying the man there?" Neil asks his driver. "Because, sir, people steal dead bodies. But in the road, witnesses pass by all day." At the Beaumont mansion, Neil can see that Charles covets Helen, whom he met on the ocean passage. Later that night, Charles goes to see a creepy mill owner named "Murder Legendre" (Bela Lugosi), whose workforce is made up of zombies. "Murder" (yes, that's his name) is a voodoo master. Beaumont asks his help in stealing Helen away from Neil: "I have to have her, I'll do anything." Legendre carves a wax doll effigy of Helen and melts it over the fire. Helen collapses at the marriage altar, right before saying "I do". She appears to have died and is carried off by a henchman of Legendre. Neil is distraught. He gets drunk that night and sees Helen calling out to him in a dream. She's zombified on a curare drug, but not yet Voodoo Undead. In Neil's dream, she's calling to be saved, but now Charles Beaumont has her. He watches her play Chopin in his living room. But she can't love him because her soul has been removed by Legendre. "Can't you put it back? he begs. Legendre shows him the zombie workers in his grain mill. "It's a business proposition, you see. They don't complain about long hours. You could do the same with Helen. She could be a concert performer". But Beaumont just wants love, the one thing Helen can't give him.
Meanwhile, Neil wants his fiancee back, and enlists the help of an Englishman named "Dr. Bruner" (Joseph Cawthorn) to find out what's going on. Murder Legendre has now had enough of Charles Beaumont's mewling, and turns him into a zombie, probably to join the mill train. Now, he can keep Helen for himself. But Neil and Doc Bruner are on his trail by now. Watch out for the pool of piranhas!
There are some matte-painted cliff views of the mansion that show "White Zombie"'s budget limitations. But in my view, they make the movie that much more impressionistic. The main thing that differentiates it from the top Universal Horror films is it's lack of script depth and the slow pacing. However, it's supposed to be gradational, revealed almost like a fable or a storybook.
The picture has been resorted. Watch it if nothing else for the look. Charles Beaumont's living room is magnificent! Overall, I think it will eventually be regarded as very close to Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy, The Wofman, The Invisible Man, and Creature from the Black Lagoon. Just one-half tier lower. It was UA trying for their very own Big Horror Movie, and I think they knocked it out of the park. Two Huge Thumbs Up for "White Zombie". The picture is very good. ////
Let me tell you a quick Halloween story. When was the last time you trick-or-treated? Are you like me, and think there should be no age limit to Trick-or-Treat? I think the last time I went full-on T-or-T was when I was 14, but my question is: have you ever trick-or-treated and found yourself scared? Found yourself in a frightening situation? I mean, that's not supposed to happen, right? Trick or treating is supposed to be fun; it's one of the Ultimate Funs of life. What's more fun than Halloween night, correct? So how could it ever be scary? Well, when I was eight or nine, I went out trick-or-treating with a kid named Mike W., my neighbor who was a year older than me. When we moved to Northridge in January 1968, Mike was my only friend because the neighborhood wasn't full of kids like my Reseda neighborhood had been. Mike W. was the only one. So for two Halloweens, I went trick-or-treating with him, and we made our way through the 'hood. This was in the days when you took a pillowcase and tried to fill it up with candy, an impossible goal, but the intent was real. You stayed out until ten o' clock. Neither your parents nor the folks handing out candy were wimps in those days. Mike would've been about 10 years old, me 9. I'm guessing the year was 1969, and we'd been out since 6 pm. We were now walking slowly down Sunburst Street, behind Cupid's Hot Dogs, trying for the last few houses. We really had stuffed our pillowcases.
One house on this very dark street still had its porch light on. Was there a pumpkin outside? Probably not. It wasn't that kind of fun Halloween house. But it must've had something that attracted us besides the porch light. Was the front door ajar? And was there spooky music playing? Maybe so. Mike W. led the way. Up the walk we went. I wish I could remember my costume but I can't. It probably included one of those "you can't breathe" condensation masks with the rubber band. Mike rang the bell, and an old lady came to the door. To a kid, old was old. An 80 year old in those days was like 200 to a kid. And this lady was, I'd guess, between 75 and 85, but still 100% lucid and ambulatory, as old ladies go.
In response to Mike's bell, she walked to the door (was it screened?) and said, I kid you not, "Come on in, boys. My husband's dead." She opened the screen and beckoned. Mike was in front of me. We could both see clearly into the living room, where a coffin lay on the dinner table. Was it just a pine board Halloween job, a set piece, or was it a real coffin? I don't know. But it sure looked real to me. They had the lights down low, so the focus was on the coffin, and they had spooky Halloween music playing in the background. And her husband was dead. He was laying in the coffin!
All of this, from doorbell to dead husband, took less than 45 seconds. I was following Mike's lead. He hesitated at the door. The old lady said, "come on in and see him." You had to, if you wanted candy.
Her dead husband just lay there in his coffin as the old lady stood at the door with the screen open, waiting for us to come inside. She was smiling as the spooky Halloween music played. Mike was in front of me. I was holding my pillowcase that was 1/3 full of candy but was supposed to be full. I wanted that extra piece, but I was getting nervous. I didn't know much about dead people. Maybe they were kidding but it wasn't even funny. Old people were scary enough without being in coffins and inviting you into their house, and holding the candy hostage. "It's okay boys...come on in." Her husband just lay there, pasty-faced and dead.
Mike W., who'd been as frozen in his tracks as I was, suddenly came to life, scared out of his wits. I have never forgotten his response to her invitation: "No chance, Grandma!"
And we turned and ran. We ran from that old lady's porch on Sunburst Street, me gripping my pillowcase 1/3 full of candy, which I would later eat most of that Halloween night.
Think of it: one older couple, who never lost the Halloween spirit, dressed up to really scare, in good fun, the heck out of the trick-or-treaters who came to their door. And they even stayed open until 10 pm. Now THAT''s some serious Halloweeners. People in their mid-70s, at least, absolutely dedicated to horror.
And they terrified a couple of kids, who thought they had Halloween in the bag. ////
And that's all for now. We're half a day late again, but soon back to normal. My blogging music was Klaus Schulze "Cyborg", my late night was Wagner Lohengrin. I hope your week is going well, and I send you Tons of Love, as always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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