DSL's Movie/TV Reviews and Discussion

[THE_WIZARD_]

...you just knew with all the LBGTQ shit flying around they would make a film dedicated to the Gay Bear...

[Dr. Strangelove]

RIP Gilbert Gottfried

Gilbert Gottfried, iconic comedian, dies at 67 after long illness (nbcnews.com)

[THE_WIZARD_]

He was great in Beverly Hills Cop II...

[Dr. Strangelove]

Problem Child II also. Just fantastic

[Dr. Strangelove]

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HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1944)
d. Erle C. Kenton
Starring: Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr., John Carradine, J. Carrol Nash, Anne Gwynne, Elena Verdugo, Glenn Strange

Desperate to keep their franchises afloat, Universal decided to start throwing them all together by the mid-40's.

See if you can follow along here. For a 70 minute movie, the plot is convoluted as fuck.

Boris Karloff is a mad scientist. Both mad AND angry. He's in a European prison for some reason and while there has made friends with a very strong hunchbacked fellow named Daniel.

Fate intervenes! Lightning strikes the prison (okay?!) and allows them to escape. They bum a ride off a traveling carnival freakshow barker (George Zucco) who they promptly murder. Yes, very accomplished horror character actor George Zucco comes and goes from the film in about 3 minutes.

Anyways the scientist wants to go back to his hometown to get revenge on everyone who wronged him. It turns out the carnival guy wasn't full of shit and he really did own Dracula's skeleton! So Boris brings Dracula (John Carradine) back to life by removing the stake from his heart and blackmails him to get revenge on his enemies. Dracula agrees for not quite believable reasons. They kill everyone Boris wants to kill but Dracula fucks up by trying to seduce a woman as well. The townspeople give chase and Boris decides Dracula's a liability so they screw him over and he fries when the sun comes up.

That entire part of the movie was irrelevant and the real movie now begins.

Boris and Daniel go in search of Frankenstein's notes because the doctor is quite mad but he's also promised to put Daniel's brain in a normal body. He just needs Frankenstein's notes and he can be just as good as Dr. Frankenstein (so he says). They stop at a gypsy camp where Daniel falls in love with a gypsy girl named Ilonka. They take her with them. If you haven't seen Frankenstein vs. the Wolf Man (1943) the next part is confusing. At the end of that movie they appeared to both die in a huge flood caused by a burst dam. But the Doctor and Daniel find them frozen in ice underneath the ruins of Frankenstein castle. O-okay?

They are thawed and the Wolf Man turns back into Lon Chaney Jr. while the monster needs a thorough dose of lightning. As he does in every single Wolf Man movie, Lon Chaney Jr. wishes he were dead and mopes around a lot. The gypsy girl find this extremely sexually appealing and starts following him around non-stop (who wouldn't?). Boris keeps stalling Daniel as his focus has turned entirely towards reviving the monster. Eventually it's a full moon and Lonnie turns into Wolfy and fatally mauls Illonka, but not before she shoots him with a silver bullet. They die in each other's arms.

This is the last straw for Daniel and he chokes the fuck out of ol' Boris for cheating him on their deal. But before he can finish the doctor off, the Monster awakens, overpowers Daniel, and throws him from the top of the castle. Another unruly mob has arrvied to destroy the Monster, so he picks up the Doctor and makes a run for it. But he runs directly into quicksand and both he and the Doctor sink into it.

Fade to black. The End.

Masterpiece.

What a clusterfuck

[THE_WIZARD_]

Is that Herman Munster?

[Dr. Strangelove]

Coincidental timing. George's "mom" died just last week

https://deadline.com/2022/04/liz-sheridan-dead-seinfeld-mother-alf-broadway-1235003021/

[Mike]

You mean Jerry’s mom.

[crashcourse]

georges mom died last week

Jerrys this week

i thought they were both dead a long time ago

so there's the set up line

[Mike]

Oh, I gotcha. I didn’t hear the news of Mrs. Costanza.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Dare I say this could actually be a video game adapted into a movie that's worth watching?

[Dr. Strangelove]

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HOUSE OF DRACULA (1945)
d. Erle C. Kenton
Starring: Lon Chaney Jr., David Carradine, Onslow Stevens, Lionel Atwill, Martha O'Driscoll, Jane Adams, Glenn Strange

Count Dracula comes to the castle home of Dr. Edelmannseeking a cure for his vampirism. The Wolf Man shows up too seeking a cure. The Doctor ends up having some of Dracula's blood transfused into him and becomes a lunatic. Frankenstein's monster is found in a cave underneath the castle. The only sympathetic character get thrown down a pit. Lon Chaney's Wolf Man is surprisingly cured but everyone else dies.

It's not great. As incoherent as a plot House of Frankenstein may be, this is better but more boring. Dracula again is second fiddle to Wolf Man and Frankenstein's monster.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Damn, hadn't heard about Robert Morse. RIP Mr. Bertram Cooper.

Robert Morse, 'Mad Men' Star, Dies at 90 - Variety

[Dr. Strangelove]

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ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948)
d. Charles Barton
Starring: Lou Costello, Bud Abbott, Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney Jr., Lenore Aubert, Glenn Strange, Jane Randolph

By the end of WWII Universal Pictures was struggling. They decided to try and combine two of their strongest properties in order to revive both. Abbot & Costello were some of the only actors under a long-term Universal contract by 1948 but were feuding with each other, had health problems, and the popularity of the duo was declining. The classic monster films were also overexposed and the second wave of films had worn out their welcome by 1945.

Abbott and Costello would go to make at least four more of these films where they "met" horror figures but without having seen any of them I am guessing this one is probably the best. Not all of the humor still plays well today but there are some amusing bits.

This movie marks the final performance by Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula. It was also his final film for Universal. He wouldn't make another film for four years and was about to enter the sad Ed Wood period of his life.

[iam416]

I'm probably the only one here who watches Better Call Saul, but, JFC.