Knight at HOME at the Movies
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Halloween 2007 Continues...
A quartet of creepy recommendations continues our month long salute to the best of this year's crop of scary movie DVDs!!!
A quartet of creepy recommendations continues our month long salute to the best of this year's crop of scary movie DVDs!!!
Bram Stoker’s Dracula – Sony has finally released a 2-disc Special Edition of Coppola’
s gothic romance version of the classic that has been worth the wait. Some cool deleted
and extended scenes and a lot of new and vintage featurettes on the amazing production
design, music and costumes (which won the Oscar) are included along with Coppola’s
always entertaining and insightful commentary.
Paul Lynde Halloween Special – From S’More Entertainment comes the perfect warm
up DVD for your screening party. This curio has not been seen since it first aired in 1976
and seems to have been hermetically sealed. Guests include Margaret Hamilton and
Billie Hayes (in Wicked Witch of the West and Witchie Poo costumes respectively), Tim
Conway, Betty White, Roz “Pinky Tuscadero” Kelly, Donny and Marie, Kiss (!), and
Florence Henderson. There’s a sketch in which Lynde plays a red haired truck driver and
escorts the witches to a Halloween themed disco at which point Henderson appears and
sings a disco version of “That Old Black Magic.” At that point my camp cup overflowed –
yours will, too. Much of it was written by Bruce Vilanch.
Fox Horror Classics Collection – Another Halloween classic (a real one this time) of
gay interest is this 3-disc DVD release. The set features 1944’s The Lodger and 1945’s
Hangover Square, the only two vehicles that starred gay actor Laird Cregar. Both are
sensational Victorian era melodramas set in a foggy, threatening London (photographed
in sumptuous black and white). In the first Cregar plays Jack the Ripper who at one point
talks almost incestuously about his late brother’s portrait. In the second, he plays
George Harvey Bone, a composer driven to murder every time he hears a dissonant
chord. Bernard Herrmann, the acknowledged dean of film composers, supplied the
masterly “Concerto Macabre” that is played at the climax of the film. Sadly, Cregar died
(from a weakened heart after crash dieting) before Hangover Square was released to great
acclaim. Both films were directed by John Cromwell who also helmed the atmospheric The
Undying Monster which is the third title in the set. Fox includes several new featurettes
including a mini biography on the short career of Cregar.
The Lair – Also of gay interest is the first season of Here! TV’s sexy (and by sexy I
mean full frontal) modern day vampire series in which a hunky, not too bright reporter
(who loves to takes hot steamy showers) stumbles upon a private club that’s filled with
hot guys and insatiable blood thirsty vampires. Just a couple steps above porn in both its
acting style and plot points, the 2-disc release is nevertheless a sexy, big ole guilty
pleasure. In a nice ironic twist, former porn star turned disco diva Colton Ford plays the
town sheriff and is the only cast member to remain clothed!
s gothic romance version of the classic that has been worth the wait. Some cool deleted
and extended scenes and a lot of new and vintage featurettes on the amazing production
design, music and costumes (which won the Oscar) are included along with Coppola’s
always entertaining and insightful commentary.
Paul Lynde Halloween Special – From S’More Entertainment comes the perfect warm
up DVD for your screening party. This curio has not been seen since it first aired in 1976
and seems to have been hermetically sealed. Guests include Margaret Hamilton and
Billie Hayes (in Wicked Witch of the West and Witchie Poo costumes respectively), Tim
Conway, Betty White, Roz “Pinky Tuscadero” Kelly, Donny and Marie, Kiss (!), and
Florence Henderson. There’s a sketch in which Lynde plays a red haired truck driver and
escorts the witches to a Halloween themed disco at which point Henderson appears and
sings a disco version of “That Old Black Magic.” At that point my camp cup overflowed –
yours will, too. Much of it was written by Bruce Vilanch.
Fox Horror Classics Collection – Another Halloween classic (a real one this time) of
gay interest is this 3-disc DVD release. The set features 1944’s The Lodger and 1945’s
Hangover Square, the only two vehicles that starred gay actor Laird Cregar. Both are
sensational Victorian era melodramas set in a foggy, threatening London (photographed
in sumptuous black and white). In the first Cregar plays Jack the Ripper who at one point
talks almost incestuously about his late brother’s portrait. In the second, he plays
George Harvey Bone, a composer driven to murder every time he hears a dissonant
chord. Bernard Herrmann, the acknowledged dean of film composers, supplied the
masterly “Concerto Macabre” that is played at the climax of the film. Sadly, Cregar died
(from a weakened heart after crash dieting) before Hangover Square was released to great
acclaim. Both films were directed by John Cromwell who also helmed the atmospheric The
Undying Monster which is the third title in the set. Fox includes several new featurettes
including a mini biography on the short career of Cregar.
The Lair – Also of gay interest is the first season of Here! TV’s sexy (and by sexy I
mean full frontal) modern day vampire series in which a hunky, not too bright reporter
(who loves to takes hot steamy showers) stumbles upon a private club that’s filled with
hot guys and insatiable blood thirsty vampires. Just a couple steps above porn in both its
acting style and plot points, the 2-disc release is nevertheless a sexy, big ole guilty
pleasure. In a nice ironic twist, former porn star turned disco diva Colton Ford plays the
town sheriff and is the only cast member to remain clothed!
