11/18/2006

Saturday again already?! Time for another Svengoolie show already?! Time to type both a question mark AND an exclamation point at the end of another sentence already?! (See? There they were!) We have a very cool movie for you tonight, again, thanks to Universal. It’s a British Hammer horror film, and one people have asked for in the past. A 1960 vampire classic- it’s “Brides of Dracula!” You get horror legend Peter Cushing as the fearless vampire fighter Dr. Van Helsing (quite a change from the old guy Van Helsing from the American Dracula flicks!)-who is summoned to Transylvania to investigate some vampiric action. A lovely young French teacher (she’s French, she doesn’t TEACH French!) has arrived, and been lured to the castle of a much-feared Baroness- who , for some reason, keeps her son locked up in their castle. He convinces the young teacher to help free him- and things REALLY get scary! Young women in the area are turning up dead- or, is that Undead?! Van Helsing, of course, knows the drill- and sets out to find out who’s behind this rash of newly-revamped vampires. For those who might recall , this is the movie with the blondish-haired vampire guy – and, no, Christopher Lee is NOT Dracula in this film.(We’ll tell you why in the show!) There are plenty of young female vampires showing their- fangs…and a lot of great and colorful sets, typical of the color Hammer films. If you like Hammer horror, we’ve got another one- also featuring Peter Cushing- coming up in a couple weeks! I’ve always liked the Hammer films- good acting, everything from carnage to cleavage- and great stories. The Hammer folks didn’t fully get into horror until the end of the ‘50s- they produced various movies before that, including the sci-fi “Creeping Unknown” with Dr. Quatermass- and really took off with their retelling of the stories Universal had originally done- Dracula, Frankenstein, etc. They went out of business in the mid ‘70s, but the films still hold up pretty well! And- you get to watch a good one tonight- at 9pm- “Brides of Dracula!” (No actual weddings take place, by the way, so cool it with the rice!) Enjoy that, then come back to enjoy more blog blather from yer old pal Sven tomorrow! # # #