ETI RADIO MAHALLOWEEN BROADCAST

 MAHALLOWEEN!!!

DEAD MEN PROWL by Carlton E. Morse

Recommended Halloween Listening: Yes, it's that time of the year again! To get into the proper spirit of Spooky Season, sit back, relax, and allow yourself to be transported to those thrilling days of yesteryear while listening to Carlton E. Morse's classic radio serial DEAD MEN PROWL. These episodes of ADVENTURES BY MORSE first aired in 1944. You can hear the entire series below....

DEAD MEN PROWL CHAPTER 1: THE ADVENTURE BEGINS

DEAD MEN PROWL CHAPTER 2: THE PROWLER AT WORK

DEAD MEN PROWL CHAPTER 3: THE DEAD DO WALK AT NIGHT 

DEAD MEN PROWL CHAPTER 4:  CONVERSATION WITH THE WALKING DEAD

DEAD MEN PROWL CHAPTER 5: THE WALKING DEAD CAPTURED

DEAD MEN PROWL CHAPTER 6: LIFE HISTORY OF PROWLERS

DEAD MEN PROWL CHAPTER 7: FOUR GO TO JOIN THE PROWLING DEAD

DEAD MEN PROWL CHAPTER 8: PROWLER WITH THE ROPE AROUND HIS NECK

DEAD MEN PROWL CHAPTER 9: PROWLING DEAD WALK AGAIN

DEAD MEN PROWL CHAPTER 10: THE PROWLING DEAD INTRODUCES HIMSELF

 

Halloween Is Upon Is!

Halloween III Season of the Witch (1982) Theatrical Trailer

VoyageLA Interview

VoyageLA just did an extensive profile on me and my work. Over the course of the interview I discuss both good luck and bad luck, Bela Lugosi, shoplifting zombie anthologies, the joys of continuation schools, corpses stashed behind supermarkets, Operation Mindfuck, Cryptoscatology, UFOs, Shannon Doherty, and more! If you're interested in reading the full interview, click HERE.

HALLOWEEN FIEND

Recommended Halloween Reading: One of the most daring independent publishers in the United States today is Grindhouse Press. Among their numerous transgressive offerings is C.V. Hunt's HALLOWEEN FIEND (2019), a short but effective dark fantasy novel about a small town called Strang and its uneasy relationship with a predatory being named "Halloween" who incessantly prowls the village every night just after sundown. The narrative revolves around an annual ritual that takes place on All Hallows' Eve, at which time a human sacrifice--ostensibly chosen at random--must be offered as an oblation to "Halloween." 

Imagine a weird mixture of Lord Dunsany's THE BLESSING OF PAN (a novel cited by Aleister Crowley in MAGICK AND THEORY AND PRACTICE as “a noble and most notable prophesy" of humanity's future), Ray Bradbury's SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES, and Robin Hardy's THE WICKER MAN, and you might have a close approximation of the peculiar experience waiting for you in the pages of HALLOWEEN FIEND, which can serve as both a trick and a treat on any night of the year... but most especially on the last evening of October.

BELA LUGOSI'S DEAD: THE PERFECT OCTOBER READ!

Are you looking for something appropriately weird and disturbing to read on All Hallows' Eve? Why not try my latest novel, BELA LUGOSI'S DEAD? A recent Amazon review described BELA LUGOSI'S DEAD as "perfect reading for October." Who am I to disagree?

What are the critics saying about BELA LUGOSI'S DEAD?

“Blending intertextual rampage through the horror-movie canon with engrossing noir mystery and a backdrop of Hollywood esoterica, Robert Guffey serves up an intoxicating pulp cocktail that will leave you wanting more. A crepuscular treasure from a fascinating author.”

--ALAN MOORE, author of V FOR VENDETTA and WATCHMEN

“In Robert Guffey's latest and greatest novel, dreams of old movies and nightmares of classic horror rack into sharp focus through the lens of a brave film historian, one determined to squint clearly at fleeting grains of film through the shifting sands of time. Never has the truth of Hollywood been so well revealed through fiction. As a result, BELA LUGOSI'S DEAD delightfully and definitively proves that Bela Lugosi isn't dead.” 

--GARY D. RHODES, author of LUGOSI and TOD BROWNING'S DRACULA

"[H]orror fans will delight in how Guffey cleverly immerses movie monsters in the real world. Film buffs and monster enthusiasts will relish the supernatural characters brought to life in this atmospheric celebration of monster mayhem."

--PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

"The sensation [of reading BELA LUGOSI'S DEAD] is like being led deep underground while your flashlight grows dimmer and dimmer, until you’re left in total darkness. That’s when the lights of a subterranean crypt flash on to reveal that you’re not where you expected to be, and where you are is far worse than you could have imagined. The result is an ending that left me chilled and took me a few days to fully process. As shocking as it was, everything was set up from the beginning. I know, I went back and checked, and have to give Guffey credit for pulling off a literary sleight of hand that caught me by surprise. I won’t spoil it with more, except to say that like the frog in water that’s warmed so slowly it doesn’t realize it’s coming to a lethal boil, Guffey’s readers face an equally stunning conclusion."

--TERENCE TAYLOR, NIGHTMARE MAGAZINE

If you don't want to read the print version of the book, why not try the unabridged Audible Audiobook? It's brilliantly read by the talented SAMUEL E. HOKE. Hoke was so dedicated to nailing the audio version that he contacted me before he began narrating the novel to make sure the accent of a particular character was exactly correct. He also went out of his way to research some of the films and documentaries about the real people and events upon which the novel is based. If you're interested, you can listen to a sample of the audiobook right HERE!

LON CHANEY JR.'S UNHOLY 13

A couple of years ago, to help improve your Halloween viewing experience, I posted a list of what I considered to be the top thirteen films of both Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. This year I decided to extend the same courtesy to Lon Chaney, Jr., who co-starred with both Karloff (HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and THE BLACK CASTLE) and Lugosi (THE WOLF MAN, THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN, FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN, ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN, and THE BLACK SLEEP) in several memorable films. What follows is an excerpt from my 2019 article, "Death Comes to Dark Oaks: Son of Dracula as Film Noird (and Other Occult Matters)," which was published in Gary D. Rhodes and Tom Weaver's book, SCRIPTS FROM THE CRYPT: SON OF DRACULA:

Once we accept Lugosi’s absence from [Son of Dracula], we can move on and appreciate Chaney’s performance. To this day, even among devoted horror fans, Chaney is castigated as an actor of limited range. And yet how many actors of “limited range” could deliver a performance that still has the impact of Chaney’s turn as Lennie in Lewis Mileston’s 1939 film adaptation of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men? It’s hard to imagine any other 1940s Hollywood leading man capable of bringing to the screen the doomed gravitas necessary to make Lawrence Talbot’s phantasmagoric predicament as a cursed outsider believable and sympathetic, as Chaney does in George Waggner’s The Wolf Man (1941). Legendary producer-director Stanley Kramer clearly respected Chaney’s acting skills very much, as he cast him in key supporting roles in High Noon (1952), Not as a Stranger (1955), and The Defiant Ones (1958). In the 2015 article “Evolution of a Horror Star,” Greg Mank insists that Chaney’s interpretation of ex-convict Big Sam, who dissuades a mob from lynching protagonists John “Joker” Jackson (Tony Curtis) and Noah Cullen (Sidney Poitier) in The Defiant Ones, should have earned him a Best Supporting Actor nomination. It’s hard to disagree with that assessment.

Chaney’s style was not Lugosi’s style. Lugosi’s over the top, quasi-surreal acting techniques could often make his horror films even more dreamlike than originally intended. Chaney’s approach was the reverse. Chaney operated as a ballast for the High Weirdness that surrounded him in his films. To appear believable and relatable, no matter how outlandish or garish the situation, was Chaney’s main talent.  

Chaney’s Midwestern, down-to-earth persona; his overpowering physique; his weathered roadmap of a face that so often seemed to bear permanent, unseen scars lurking just beneath the surface: all of these elements combined to create a necessary anchor for the carnivalesque strangeness that surrounded his own personal cinematic universe. His ability to impart gritty realism to even the nuttiest and most melodramatic scenarios is evident in his most memorable roles: not just the aforementioned man-child Lennie Small in Of Mice and Men; not just poor, doomed Lawrence Talbot in that quintet of classic horror films, i.e., The Wolf Man, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, The House of Frankenstein (1944), The House of Dracula (1945), and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein; not just the tired, fatalistic Sheriff Martin Howe in High Noon, but also in less appreciated works such as Jack Hill’s Spider Baby (1967), Roger Corman’s The Haunted Palace (1963), Roy Del Ruth’s The Alligator People (1959), Bert I. Gordon’s The Cyclops (1957), Jack Pollexfen’s Indestructible Man (1956), Roy Kellino’s TV episode "The Golden Junkman" (1956), John Hoffman’s Strange Confession (1945), Reginald Le Borg’s The Mummy’s Ghost (1944), and George Waggner’s Man Made Monster (1941). Some of these films are genuine masterpieces of cult cinema (e.g., Spider Baby); others boast significant historical importance (e.g., The Haunted Palace is the first cinematic adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s work, now a veritable cinematic subgenre of its own); some showcase sincere, master class performances within a modest budget (e.g., "The Golden Junkman"); some feature a wonderful starring performance despite the low-budget madness that threatens to overwhelm even Chaney’s considerable presence (the next time you watch Indestructible Man, for example, ask yourself, “Who else but Chaney, Jr. could hold an entire film together with little more than close-ups of his pained eyes?”); others demonstrate that the actor was eminently capable of transmitting genuine emotion even with one hand tied not behind his back, but to the front of his chest (note how Chaney is able to suggest thousands upon thousands of years of frustrated sexual desire with nothing more than subtle body language in The Mummy’s Ghost during the pivotal scene in which Kharis’ long-lost lover, Ananka, dissolves into ash seconds before he’s about to hold her in his arms once more); his Universal debut in Man-Made Monster as “Dynamo” Dan McCormick—a carnival performer with boyish charm who becomes an unwitting guinea pig in an illicit scientific experiment involving electrophysiology and mind control—takes full advantage of Chaney’s ability to shift by degrees from folksy optimism to resigned stoicism to noble selflessness. 

And now comes a list of my personal favorite Chaney movies, which range from the sublime to the ridiculous (in fact, some of them manage to combine both elements in a single film)....

SPIDER BABY (1967)

OF MICE AND MEN (1939)

THE WOLF MAN (1941)

HIGH NOON (1952)

FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN (1943)

THE INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN (1956)

STRANGE CONFESSION (1945)

ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948)

THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE (1959)

THE HAUNTED PALACE (1963)

SON OF DRACULA (1943)

THE CYCLOPS (1957)

THE MUMMY'S CURSE (1944) 

TOD BROWNING'S UNHOLY 13

RECOMMENDED HALLOWEEN VIEWING: Anyone interested in the history of the fantastique must contend with the spirit of Tod Browning. Not only was Browning the first American director brave enough to confront the supernatural in cinema—in the form of his 1931 adaptation of Dracula, his most famous work—but he also left behind a legacy of unique and original films, many of which are black jewels filled with scintillating and shocking surprises. If you only know Browning through Dracula, you can’t really understand the true depth of his talent. It’s difficult to think of a contemporary director who might be in any way comparable to Browning and his weird obsessions. The only American director I can think of that might fit the bill is David Lynch, who has created one dark masterpiece after another since his 1977 debut with Eraserhead, time after time digging into the troubled inner lives of his tortured characters through means both mundane and phantasmagoric. It’s that juxtaposition, of the real and the hyperreal, that overlaps with the pioneering work of Tod Browning, master illusionist.

I contend that there are at least a dozen (or perhaps thirteen, if one counts the ghostly remains of London After Midnight, a lost film that exists only in the form of a forty-six-minute reconstructed version based on existing stills) Browning films with which any fan of the fantastique should be intimately familiar because, whether you know it or not, Browning’s films are part of the very DNA of the fantastique in world literature.... 

THE UNHOLY THREE (1925)

THE MYSTIC (1925)

THE SHOW (1927) 

THE UNKNOWN (1927) 

LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT (1927)  

WEST OF ZANZIBAR (1928)

WHERE EAST IS EAST (1929)

THE THIRTEENTH CHAIR (1929)

DRACULA (1931)

 FREAKS (1932)

MARK OF THE VAMPIRE (1935) 

 

 

THE DEVIL-DOLL (1936)

 

MIRACLES FOR SALE (1939)

 

HAPPY 139th BIRTHDAY, BELA LUGOSI!

To honor what would have been Bela Lugosi's 139th birthday, I urge you to check out Gary D. Rhodes' latest two nonfiction books (written in collaboration with Bill Kaffenberger), BECOMING DRACULA: THE EARLY YEARS OF BELA LUGOSI VOL. 1 and BECOMING DRACULA: THE EARLY YEARS OF BELA LUGOSI VOL. 2. Read together, these books form a nearly 900-page magnum opus that delves into Lugosi's formative experiences as a struggling actor from 1882 to 1930 (the year before the release of Tod Browning's DRACULA) with infinitely greater depth than any previous attempt by film historians. I highly recommend reading both books in a row. 

PRAISE FOR BECOMING DRACULA:

 “Dracula left his native land and crossed the waters by ship in search of fresh killing fields. Bela Lugosi headed for America not looking for blood but for a fresh start. Gary D. Rhodes and Bill Kaffenberger, with their usual precise and careful scholarship, chronicle Lugosi’s attempts to establish himself on stage and screen in his new homeland. While fans might think they are familiar with this period in Bela’s life, this excellently written book will provide them with many surprises and an astonishing amount of detail.”

 --Henry Nicolella, author of FRANK WISBAR and MANY SELVES: THE HORROR AND FANTASY FILMS OF PAUL WEGENER

“By presenting a staggering wealth of well researched details, Gary D. Rhodes and Bill Kaffenberger create not only the context but the humanity of Lugosi becoming Dracula. Their portrait-in-words is nuanced, revealing and sympathetic, but still preserves the mystery and majesty of this most charismatic of actors. They introduce the reader to the Hungarian-American subculture in which Lugosi found himself when he arrived on the shores of the United States. Lugosi was initially the big fish in that small pond, but the authors portray his emergence into the vast ocean of Broadway and Hollywood and the fascination Lugosi created with his unique presence there.” 

--Steve Haberman, screenwriter of DRACULA: DEAD AND LOVING IT and
author of SILENT SCREAMS: THE HISTORY OF THE SILENT HORROR FILMS

If you're not completely Lugosied out by that point, take a deep dive into BELA LUGOSI AND THE MONOGRAM NINE (coauthored by Gary D. Rhodes and Yours Truly), an in-depth analysis of the nine Poverty Row films in which Lugosi starred during World War II. You can hear Gary and I discussing this book at great length during the October 22, 2019 episode of Roejen Razorwire's PROJECT ARCHIVIST. Click HERE to listen to the entire discussion.

PRAISE FOR BELA LUGOSI AND THE MONOGRAM NINE:

"BELA LUGOSI AND THE MONOGRAM NINE, by Gary Rhodes and Robert Guffey, critically and wonderfully examines a series of no-budget films made by no-budget Monogram Studios in the 1940s featuring Lugosi that are among the most wonderfully odd cinematic follies ever made--surrealistic, straight from the subconscious, sometimes stupid, at moments seeming to spring from the mind of Bunuel, and in the next, an idea Ed Wood would have discarded as too unbelievable. But, movies always unlike any others, and at their best seeming like fever dreams through which Lugosi calmly walks in evening clothes carrying a flaming blowtorch. I highly recommend this book." 

--JACK WOMACK, author of RANDOM ACTS OF SENSELESS VIOLENCE and LET'S PUT THE FUTURE BEHIND US

"Gary Rhodes has become my favorite nonfiction author, while the subject of some of his writings, Bela Lugosi, has long been one of my favorite actors. Now Gary has teamed up with co-author Robert Guffey to present, for the first time, a collection of in-depth and insightful essays evaluating those lesser ‘classics’ that comprise the so-called ‘Monogram Nine.’ If you are a Lugosi fan and also a fan of old ‘B’ horror films, you will love this book."

--DONALD F. GLUT, filmmaker, Marvel Comics writer, and author of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK novelization

"An extraordinary volume. Rhodes and Guffey refract these films through the lens of surrealism, detailed genre study, auteurist-informed close readings, star studies, and vigorous historicism to name a few of the kaleidoscope of methods employed. This book provides a breakthrough model for serious work on films that have to date received very little scholarly attention.”

--MICHAEL LEE, Ph.D. (University of Oklahoma), editor at the journal HORROR STUDIES

"It would require an enthusiastic writing team such as Gary Rhodes and Robert Guffey to bring respect and probing inquiry to these Lugosi films from Monogram Studios. Are the films minor miracles or minor masterpieces? This book is food for thought in that area. For too long, 'the nine' was considered throw-away entertainment. Watch it once, then forget it. The authors of this book demur [...]. I encourage every monster fan to get this book. You’ll love it. The treasure chest of Monogram classics is shown knowledgeable evaluation and context at long last."
 
--MICHAEL COPNER, MONDO CULT ONLINE

"Containing several chapters offering different variations on its subject matter, Rhodes and Guffey explore the films Lugosi made at Monogram with an open-minded approach, an intelligent appreciation, and a historical knowledge. Even those of us long familiar with these films will be enlightened by the further information provided in these essays [...]. The reader's understanding of film history, production, and promotion will be enhanced by this exceptionally intelligent text.

"BELA LUGOSI AND THE MONOGRAM NINE is a book that needs to be included in any library, research center, or personal collection that even hopes to be considered at all comprehensive. For fans of film history, of Lugosi, of the horror genre, or of B movies, BELA LUGOSI AND THE MONOGRAM NINE is an absolute must." 

--JAMES L. NEIBAUR, author of THE MONSTER MOVIES OF UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

COLD WAR CREATURES: FOUR FILMS FROM SAM KATZMAN

Recommended Halloween Viewing: COLD WAR CREATURES: FOUR FILMS FROM SAM KATZMAN, a new Arrow Video Blu-ray set that includes Edward L. Cahn's CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN (1955), Fred F. Sears' THE WEREWOLF (1956), Edward L. Cahn's ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU (1957), and Fred F. Sears' THE GIANT CLAW (1957).

Here's Arrow's product description:

"Zombies! Werewolves! Atomic Mutation! Intergalactic Avians! Let this quartet of classic terrors take you back to the golden age of B-Movie Monsters! A mob boss hires an ex-Nazi scientist to reanimate his dead thugs in Creature with the Atom Brain. An auto-accident survivor is used as an experimental subject to create a vaccine for nuclear fallout with hair-raising side-effects in The Werewolf. Treasure hunters get more than they bargained for in the search for a cargo of diamonds that went down with a sunken ship when they discover the zombified crew members are guarding the loot in Zombies of Mora Tau. Meanwhile, an enormous bird from outer-space descends to chow down on the people of planet Earth in The Giant Claw! Four fantastic feature presentations from prolific producer Sam Katzman with a bounty of brand new extras and a raft of new writing by a range of respected raconteurs. These Cold War Creatures are coming for you!"

Click HERE to read Jaime Pina's recent PUNKGLOBE interview with renowned writer/artist Stephen R. Bissette, who contributed bonus material (i.e., a "live" video lecture and bonus booklet text) to this new set.

POSSESSOR

Recommended Halloween Viewing: Readers of both CRYPTOSCATOLOGY and CHAMELEO will no doubt be interested in the subject matter of Brandon Cronenberg's 2020 film, POSSESSOR.

POSSESSOR TRAILER

Pathology of the Humor Virus

Here's an excerpt from my 8-30-20 SALON article entitled "Making Sense of QAnon: What Lies Behind the Conspiracy Theory That's Eating America?":

"In 2017, a year after Trump’s election, I published a novel entitled UNTIL THE LAST DOG DIES, which was about a young stand-up comedian who must adapt as best he can to an apocalyptic virus that destroys only the humor centers of the brain. After wading through hours of this humorless QAnon material, in which even the most innocuous Disney cartoons are flensed of fun and replaced with dark speculations about the demonic symbols hovering like unholy specters over Uncle Walt’s films, I’m beginning to think that my novel was far more prescient that I could have imagined."

Incontrovertible proof of the existence of the "Humor Virus" can be found in the most recent episode of THE B2T SHOW, a loopy Christian Patriot internet talk show featured prominently in my recent EVERGREEN REVIEW series entitled "If You’re Into Eating Children’s Brains, You’ve Got a Four-Year Free Ride: A QAnon Bedtime Story." If you fast forward to approximately the 33:40 mark, you will witness the host, Rick Rene, believing with not a hint of skepticism whatsoever that comedian Fred Armisen (of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE and PORTLANDIA fame) is an actual representative of the Australian government and that a scene from an episode of the TV sitcom PARKS & RECREATION is a genuine news clip. Carefully study the stone-cold expression on Rick's mug as he listens to Armisen's blatant silliness and interprets it as undeniable evidence of imminent martial law in the United States of Amurrrica. Click HERE to watch this extremely bizarre clip (it ends around the 35:00 mark).