[UA] Re: Horror Actors

[Royal Minister of Stuff]

SPOILER ALERT!
(all the way at the bottom.)
--- Timothy Toner <thanatos at interaccess.com> wrote:
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Stuart Anderson" <stuartanderson at qwest.net>
> To: <ua at lists.uchicago.edu>
> Sent: Friday, June 01, 2001 11:25 PM
> Subject: [UA] Re: Horror Actors
> 
> 
> > Stevens Dustin wrote:
> >
> > > ObUA: Obviously, you have an adventure made up
> of a
> > > creepy old house where old horror actors;
> Cushing,
> > > Karloff, Lugosi, Chaney (Sr. and Jr.), go when
> they
> > > die to become zombies, vampires, werewolves,
> etc. Or
> > > at least go to be put in make up one last time.
> Maybe
> > > PCs follow Lee to the house (an off-branch of
> the
> > > House of Renunciation?), then see somebody
> putting in
> > > Lee's plastic fangs and burying him in the
> nearby
> > > cemetery. The atmosphere is to perfectly
> duplicate an
> > > old B&W silent horror movie, including with the
> > > obvious fake gnarled tree, and dark backdrop.
> The
> > > capper is when they all come out of the shadows
> for
> > > one last 'bite'.
> >
> > Holy crap! I saw that picture! Help me out,
> y'all--it was John
> > Carradine, Vincent Prince, Karloff, and someone
> else--Claude
> > Rains?--Hell, I don't remember. It was one of the
> arty pictures
> > the guys put out. I don't even remember the thrust
> of it. But it
> > was just a bunch of creepy smart guys sittin
> around talking.
> > Jeez--I haven't thought of that picture in years.
> 
> House of the Long Shadows (1983)
> http://us.imdb.com/Details?0085693
> 
> It was Price, Lee, Cushing, and Carradine.  Sounds
> fascinating, not
> available to rent or buy, tho.  What's also
> interesting is the source
> material, a silent film called Seven Keys to
> Baldpate (1917), notable only
> in that the script was written by George M. Cohan
> (I'ma Yankee Doodle Dandy,
> and all that) from a novel by Earl Derr Biggers, who
> created Charlie Chan,
> it's been remade four times (1925, 1929, 1935,
> 1947), and it has a curious
> plot summary:
> 
> A writer bets a friend that he can write a
> 10,000-word novel in 24 hours.
> The friends takes the bet, and gives him the keys to
> his Baldpate Inn, which
> has been closed for the winter, so he can write in
> complete seclusion.
> Things start heating up, though, when a succession
> of people who also have
> keys to the inn begin showing up.
> 
> 
> Doesn't that sound a little like The Shining?  More
> than that, though--maybe
> the filming of the movie is some elaborate ritual,
> wherein a door is opened
> that can only be closed by re-enacting the movie. 
> An open script could
> serve as an invitation for several fictional
> characters to stop by for a
> visit (we can only assume the matter was handled
> discreetly in 1917).  If
> so, the door has been re-opened in 1983, and has not
> been shut since.  Or
> maybe the similarity of the Shining unwittingly
> opened it, and the remake
> closed it.

I saw House of Long Shadows.  It's, um, not what you'd
think.  For one thing, it stars Desi Arnez, Jr. (he's
the writer who makes the bet.)

The horror in the house is pretty interesting, but the
endings is a lot like "April Fools Day."  I don't have
a problem with that kind of ending, but I do have a
problem with Desi Arnez, Jr. I just can't watch the
poor guy.  I can't watch anything with Sally Fields in
it, either, or, lately, Uma Thurman (though that may
just have something to do with THE AVENGERS movie
being so God Awful.)  It must have something to do
with the pitch of their voices.

=====
-- Rp Bowman, Royal Minister of Stuff
The Electronic Nation of Yokeltania:
http://www.geocities.com/yokeltania/

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