11/26/2006

Is there anything as depressing as a nice long holiday weekend winding up?! Seems like it was just Wednesday night…and we were all about 5 pounds lighter…now we start the ever-accelerating journey to the holidays and the end of the year… When we’ll be 15 pounds heavier, and our wallets will be lighter. So, we got that going for us- which is nice (how do you make that sound like Bill Murray in “Caddyshack” in print?!) Hope you liked the vintage “Dracula’s Daughter” last night-no, not as much vampire action as some movies, but another great example of the atmosphere of those 30s Universal flicks. It also brought to mind something else- that sequels back then weren’t numbered! Younger folks today expect a “Spider-Man III” or a “Rocky VI”- but, looking back at all the old movies, especially our Universal horror films- there was no number. Last night’s movie was “Dracula’s Daughter” not “Dracula II” -and, no subtitle either (what would this one be- “Dracula II: Daddy’s Little Ghoul?”) We had “Dracula”-“Dracula’s daughter”- “Son of Dracula”- we had “Frankenstein”-“Bride of Frankenstein”-“Son of Frankenstein”- it would branch out to real estate in “House of Frankenstein” and “House of Dracula.” There were cross-referencing sequels, like “Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man”-and movies that just barely were sequels- a good example being “Invisible Man” and “Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man”-which just acknowledged the original in passing (remember me pointing out the picture of Claude Raines on the doctor’s wall?)Back then, nobody was numbering related movies- we’d have had “Sherlock Holmes 7” and “Blondie 6” if they had! “Son of” sequels were always very popular- in fact, that’s what we based my initial appearance as the Svengoolie character on- “Son of Svengoolie!” I guess I’m sort of a living sequel ! But, as I’ve said before- don’t ever expect a “Svengoolie III”- original Sven Jerry G. Bishop and I have agreed the family line stops here (maybe that’s a good thing!) What’s the most ridiculous “Son of” sequel you can think of? “Son of Godzilla” was kind of goofy- “Son of Blob” was even MORE goofy- have you ever seen that one? It was supposed to be a kind of comedic film, directed by “Dallas’ ” J.R. (and “I Dream of Jeannie’s” Major Nelson-thank you, Me-TV), Larry Hagman- and it even featured Chicago improv legend Del Close! Del actually liked my Svengoolie shtick, and even appeared on the old “Son of” show! But, even he couldn’t save that Blob movie… Well, save me ONE MORE slice of left-over turkey- and save some time to come back tomorrow for more blogging. Drop me a line about your least favorite “Son of” sequel at svengoolie@wciu.com.