The Old Dark House News

And then yesterday I was paying long over-due tribute to the late great New York Times film critic Howard Thompson , the inventor of the killer one-line film review/blurb as a genre unto itself.

There's a Boris Karloff marathon on Turner Classic Movies today. You can read about the entire line-up on their site , but here are some highlights.

The problem with a TV festival of William Castle films is that they don't come with all the gimmicks that accompanied them in the original theatrical showings of his B-movies. The most famous are the random joy buzzers affixed to some theater seats during the screenings of the 1959 "The Tingler" . "Straight-Jacket" , released in 1964, featured Joan ...

This week in the New York Times, the first of a two part round-up of recent horror film releases , which for some reason seem to proliferate in late October, looks at some examples of old school horror, before the gore revolution of the late 60s.

And now a postscript, if you will, to our discussion of the William Castle Film Collection , a nifty box set about to be unleashed on an unsuspecting world by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Okay, I've said this before, but some days the film and video gods really do seem to be smiling on us.

Photo of the youthful Angry Samoans from the band's Web site . Old Men With Guitars Boston has seen a parade of old men playing old fashioned punk rock music this week, and it continues marching today with California critic-punks Angry Samoans, who are still trying to reach out to the masses who have not gotten hip to the lights out way.

BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN : Elsa Lanchester is a hoot as the intended - but scarcely thrilled - bride.

You can have your slashers, rolling heads, exploding guts and psychos who eat human liver, topping it off with fava beans and a nice Chianti.

First of all, I'd like to note that Wednesday is James Whale's 120th birthday. "Mr. Jimmy" isn't here to celebrate, of course, but it could do no harm to take a look at one of his films in honor of the event.

An elegant if underutilized leading lady of 1930s Hollywood, Gloria Stuart was best remembered for two classic horror films she made amid a great deal of routine studio product.