Veronica Cartwright is 77 years old today. She was born on 20 April 1949. She is the older sister of Angela Cartwright (Penny on Lost in Space). But Veronica is much more interesting.

She was born in England but her family moved to Los Angeles when she was still young. This probably explains her lack of accent.

As a child actor, Veronica Cartwright starred in the saccharine Ray Bradbury-penned “I Sing the Body Electric” episode of The Twilight Zone. Following that, she starred in The Birds. But I’m not that interested in her work as a child actor. She was lucky to get a second act in her career.

As an adult, she starred in Inserts with Richard Dreyfuss, Jessica Harper, and Bob Hoskins. And just four years later, she had a very psychotronic period. She starred in Goin’ South, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and, of course, Alien. Cartwright claims she showed up on the set of Alien, thinking she was playing Ripley. She would have been great in it. But she brings a toughness to the role of the emotional Lambert that works really well. And frankly, I just don’t think Sigourney Weaver would have been good as Lambert.

Cartwright works a lot — and shows few signs of slowing down. But I don’t think about much of that, except for one film. She was amazing in The Witches of Eastwick. Especially in the cherry scene. (Be careful! The scene always makes me nauseous!)

But let’s celebrate Veronica Cartwright’s birthday by watching Alien.

Other 20 April Anniversaries

Filmmakers:

• Donald Wolfit (1902-1968): Actor who starred in Blood of the Vampire.
• Bruce Cabot (1904-1972): The original Jack Driscoll.
• George Tomasini (1909-1964): Editor of Psycho and The Birds.
• George Takei (1937-): Known for Star Trek but he’s been in psychotronic films like Oblivion.
• Judith O’Dea (1945-): Iconic actor in the original Night of the Living Dead.
• Jessica Lange (1949-): Actor in King Kong and Cape Fear.
• Clint Howard (1959-): Character actor who works a lot — in many psychotronic films including Ice Cream Man.
• Crispin Glover (1964-): Resting creep face actor in films like Willard.
• Andy Serkis (1964-): Actor known for his motion-capture roles as King Kong and Gollum.

Films:

• The Monster and the Ape (1945): Serial about a robot and a killer ape.
• The Catman of Paris (1946): Murder mystery horror.
• Conquest of Space (1955): George Pal science fiction.
• Night of the Grizzly (1966): Western featuring Keenan Wynn.
• Martians Go Home (1990): Science fiction comedy starring Randy Quaid.
• Dark Harvest (2004): Killer scarecrow.
• Vacancy (2007): Stranded couple in danger starring Kate Beckinsale, Luke Wilson, and Frank Whaley.
• Witchmaster General (2009): Faust with murder.
• Night of the Pumpkin (2010): Killer pumpkin-man.

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Veronica Cartwright via The Ultimate Rabbit under Fair Use.

Don Sharp was born on 19 April 1921.

He was born in Tasmania. During World War II, he joined the Royal Australian Air Force. On the side, he performed as an actor on the stage and radio. He was injured in the war. Back home, he continued to perform in the theater. After the war, he moved to England because he wanted to perform in movies.

This never really happened. He was successful on the stage but has only a handful of film credits. But at the same time, Sharp succeeded as a screenwriter of low-budget films. And in 1955, he got his first directing job. From there, he was doing pretty well — including directing for TV.

He got a big break in 1962. Hammer hired him to direct Kiss of the Vampire. It was meant to be the follow-up of the second of the Dracula series. No one knows why Hammer didn’t market it that way. The second film, The Brides of Dracula, is notable for not featuring Dracula! And if Kiss had been in the series, it would have been one of the best.

According to Don Sharp, he had never even seen a horror film when he was hired. I kind of doubt that. Regardless, he was a good director and came out of the gate strong. He went on to direct two classics: Curse of the Fly and Psychomania (The Death Wheelers).

Psychomania is a weird film. But you can’t get more psychotronic than it! (Okay; nothing is as psychotronic as Alabama’s Ghost; but that’s a ridiculously high bar!) It’s an occult biker film. And it was the last film of George Sanders, which is awesome. But I’m not that fond of the film. Biker films tend to leave me cold. But tt is a psychotronic classic. You should see it at least once.

Curse of the Fly is the last of The Fly trilogy. Of the three, it is my favorite. It is also not really a sequel. That may be why I like it so much. It’s good to watch to see just what Don Sharp could do with a micro-budget.

Other April 19th Anniversaries

Filmmakers:

• Hugh O’Brian (1925-2016): Star of six seasons of The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp.
• Dick Sargent (1930-1994): The worse Darrin on Bewitched; he was in The Ghost and Mr Chicken and Parts: The Clonus Horror.
• Jayne Mansfield (1933-1967): Star of various comedies and musicals.
• Ox Baker (1934-2014): Wrestler who appeared in Blood Circus and Escape from New York.
• Dudley Moore (1935-2002): Actor who worked closely with Peter Cook in films like Bedazzled and The Hound of the Baskervilles.
• Tim Curry (1946-): Actor best known for The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but has worked widely.
• Kate Hudson (1979-): Mostly known for romantic comedies, she’s been in some interesting stuff like The Skeleton Key and The Killer Inside Me.

Films:

• Succubus (1968) — West Germany erotic horror film
• Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy (1996) — way under-seen funny and disturbing comedy
• Murder By Numbers (2002) — mystery horror film starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Gosling
• Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (1996) — riffing on the “bad” (!) This Island Earth
• The Scorpion King (2002) — an action film set in ancient Egypt
• The Curse of La Llorona (2007) — supernatural horror
• Dark House (2009) — haunted-haunted house attraction film starring Jeffrey Combs
• Stem Cell (2009) — David DeCoteau science fiction horror film starring Dee Wallace
• Hyenas (2011) — human-hyena creatures hunt humans
• The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018) — Terry Gilliam’s long-pursued film, which is fine.

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Don Sharp via Wikipedia under Fair Use.

Edgar Wright is 52 years old today. He was born on 18 April 1974.

He co-wrote and directed the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy: Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007), and The World’s End (2013). Few people know of any of his other work. Even me. I know him from those films. And I know him for writing films like The Adventures of Tintin and Ant-Man.

Wright madea 40-minute film, Dead Right, which IMDb describes as, “Dirty Harry meets Airplane.” A couple of years later, he made his first feature film, A Fistful of Fingers. It is a comedy western. That is the thread that runs throughout his career: comedy.

He is a great comedy writer. But direction is where most comedies die. And Wright is one of the best comedy directors. Most important for people here, he loves genre and psychotronic films.

After Fingers, Edgar Wright spent about a decade directing TV and music videos. Then came Shaun of the Dead. Of the three films, it is my second favorite. As I’ve said before, Hot Fuzz is my favorite. I am least interested in The World’s End. But for an unusual reason.

The film creates such interesting characters. And their dynamics are so engaging. When the aliens show up, I wanted to go back to the regular tragicomedy that was presented previously. Or at least that was how I felt the first time I watched it. I like it just fine now. But I still think the first part of the film is the best.

The World’s End was the least successful of the three with audiences. And I commonly run into people who haven’t seen it. So let’s celebrate Edgar Wright’s birthday by watching it!

Other April 18th Anniversaries

Filmmakers:

• Shinobu Hashimoto (1918-2018): Screenwriter of The Hidden Fortress and Harakiri.
• Barbara Hale (1922-2017): Actor who portrayed loyal secretary Della Street in Perry Mason and its many films.
• Clive Revill (1930-1925): Actor in The Legend of Hell House and The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes.
• James Drury (1934-2020): Star of the TV series The Virginian.
• Hayley Mills (1946-): Star of Pollyanna, The Parent Trap, and many psychotronic films like Twisted Nerve.
• James Woods (1947-): Psychotronic icon in films like Videodrome and Vampires.
• Rick Moranis (1953-): SCTV star who was in a number of films like the remake of Little Shop of Horrors and The Flintstones.
• Eric Roberts (1956-): Actor who works so much (over 900 credits on IMDb) that it’s hard to know where to start; he was in Sanctimony and Raptor, to name but two.
• Maria Bello (1967-): Actor known for Payback and A History of Violence.
• David Tennant (1971-): The tenth Doctor in Doctor Who.
• Eli Roth (1972-): Director of Cabin Fever, Hostel, and more.

Films:

• The Whispering Shadow (1933) — mystery serial starring Bela Lugosi
• The Man With Nine Lives (1940) — science fiction horror film starring Karloff
• She (1965) — Hammer adventure film with Ursula Andress and Peter Cushing
• Legend (1985) — fantasy film starring Tom Cruise
• At Close Range (1986) — crime thriller starring Sean Penn and Christopher Walken
• RoboCop 3 (1993) — silly and sweet sequel
• 8 Heads In A Duffel Bag (1997) — crime comedy with Joe Pesci
• Head Cheerleader, Dead Cheerleader (2000) — teen horror
• The Forbidden Kingdom (2008) — Jackie Chan fantasy martial arts
• Zombie Strippers (2008) — zombie comedy starring Robert Englund
• Deadland (2009) — post-apocalyptic adventure.

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Image cropped from Edgar Wright by John E Manard under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Let Us Prey premiered at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival on 17 April 2014.

The Irish Film Board and Creative Scotland jointly produced the film. But lots of other companies were involved with the production. And just about every country had a different distributor. No one distributed it in the United States, as far as I know.

The title “Let Us Prey” is clever in the abstract. But it is a lousy title for this film. The Portuguese-language title is Aprisionados (Brazil) and Encarcerados. They both mean roughly “The Imprisoned.” That’s much better. The French-language title is Colère Divine (“Divine Wrath”), which isn’t great but is certainly much better than the English-language title.

It is one of my favorite horror and religious films. Pollyanna McIntosh plays Rachel, a new police officer working her first night. Liam Cunningham plays Six, a mysterious man held in jail on vagrancy charges. So there’s your Scottish-Irish connection!

Everyone else is just awful. It has the feel of Dante’s Inferno. And that makes sense. Six is actually Satan, come to town to collect souls. But he is not what modern Americans normally think of. Satan is more like he is in the Book of Job. He is the prosecutor.

But Let Us Prey does not stick to the Bible. The subtext is that Yahweh and Satan are having a disagreement. Yahweh is all about mercy. And Satan is all about justice. And given the characters in this film, we side strongly with Satan.

The overall story is that Satan is lonely, and he has found a woman he can love. The police station ends in a blaze of fire with all the bad people killed. But in that context, we get one of the most romantic endings to a film I’ve ever seen.

I cannot recommend this film highly enough. If you are a horror fan, you need to watch it. But remember what I said about the Inferno. It’s no more disturbing. But it’s also no less!

Other April 17th Anniversaries

Filmmakers:

• William Holden (1918-1981): Hollywood legend in movies such as Sunset Boulevard, The Wild Bunch, and Network.
• Olivia Hussey (1951-2024): Actor in, among others, Black Christmas.
• Roddy Piper (1954-2015): Actor in Hell Comes to Frogtown and They Live.
• Sean Bean (1959-): Great actor in countless films including Silent Hill.
• Jennifer Garner (1972-): Elektra in Marvel films.

Films:

• Things To Come (1936): Humans rebuild after a century of war; based on the novel by HG Wells.
• The Strange Case of Dr Rx (1942): Police search for a vigilante killer but it turns out to be a mad scientist.
• The Lady and the Monster (1944): A rich man’s dead brain controls people telepathically because why not.
• Gamera vs Barugon (1966): The flying turtle takes on a big lizard.
• Macabre (1980): A woman who accidentally killed her lover is out of the mental hospital and seems to be having an affair with the lover.
• The Watcher in the Woods (1980): An American family moves into an English manor and the two daughters discover an occult mystery; it stars Bette Davis.
• Caveman (1981): Silly caveman comedy starring Ringo Starr; also starring Dennis Quaidand Shelley Long.
• Delicatessen (1991): A landlord murders people and sells the meat to his tenants; directed by the men who brought you The City of Lost Children.
• Summer Camp Nightmare (1987): Campers revolt and take over the camp but things go wrong.
• Major League: Back to the Minors (1998): A washed up pitcher becomes the manager of a triple-A minor league team.
• Suicide Kings (1998): A group of upper-class young men kidnaps a mob boss to save a kidnapped friend; it stars Christopher Walken.
• Paulie (1998): A parrot searches for its original owner.
• Mind Morgue (2008): A writer struggles with visions from his latest book.
• The Morgue (2008): A small group of people get trapped in a morgue for the night; you’ll never guess the twist — unless you’ve watched more than a dozen horror films.
• Blood River (2009): A newlywed couple’s car breaks down and they walk to a ghost town where they meet a mysterious stranger.
• Unfriended (2015): Online friends are harassed by an account of a dead friend.

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Let Us Prey (2014) poster via Wikipedia under Fair Use.

On this day, 16 April, in 1889, Charlie Chaplin was born. I remember reading a quote from Woody Allen talking about how he preferred Chaplin’s films to Buster Keaton’s. And he admitted that Keaton made better films (as film). This is true. Chaplin’s films really do suck in terms of cinematic art. Basically, he just set up a camera and shot the whole scene in a long shot. In other words: he was filming plays.

But I’m with Allen. I admire Keaton. But I almost never watch his films anymore. But I own both The Gold Rush and Modern Times. And just recently, I watched The Kid. And City Lights is an outstanding film.

It’s not even that they are funny — even though they still make me laugh. They are just so sweet at the same time that they are subversive. The Little Tramp is not exactly a believer in the American Dream. He’s just trying to get by.

The Little Tramp Begins

Charlie Chaplin’s first film was made in 1914. Think how late that is: 1914! The Great Train Robbery was released in 1903. That was pretty much the first film that used the editing technique of cross-cutting: cutting between two locations to indicate that what is occurring is going on at the same time. (People claim it isn’t the first example, but no one has ever shown me anything earlier.)

Just one year after Chaplin’s start would come The Birth of a Nation — probably the first thoroughly modern film. So Chaplin’s career in film started pretty late, which probably explains partly why they live on.

I had always thought that Charlie Chaplin’s first film was, Kid Auto Races at Venice. It is a little six-minute film in which the Little Tramp keeps trying to get in the picture of some guys trying to film the races.

There really is nothing more too it. It’s funny for the same reason the Little Tramp was always funny: his arrogance despite his low stature in society.

The First Chaplin Film

But that was not Charlie Chaplin’s first film. That was the first film in which the little tramp starred. It came out a whole five days later than his first film, Making a Living.

Making a Living is a far more complex film. Kid Auto Races at Venice was just an improvised film. It has no real plot — just a single gag done over and over. The director pushes the tramp out of the scene at the end, but he’s done that several times before and there is every indication that it will continue on as it has.

In Making a Living, Charlie Chaplin pretends to be a gentleman, out and about. He stops a passer-by and they chat. But it is all a setup to ask for money.

Then, inexplicably, Chaplin gets a young woman to agree to marry him. While telling her mother, the same man comes by and proposes, but she refuses. Chaplin and the man fight. And so on. It actually has a very nice comedic narrative until it, like all Mack Sennett films, just stops.

My Favorite Charlie Chaplin Film

But let’s end this with my favorite Charlie Chaplin Film: Modern Times:

Other April 16th Anniversaries

People:

• Barry Nelson (1917-2007): The first James Bond in the 1954 made-for-TV Casino Royale, as well as the Overlook Hotel manager in The Shining.
• Peter Ustinov (1921-2004): Actor in Blackbeard’s Ghost, Logan’s Run, and other odd films.
• Edie Adams (1927-2008): Comedic actor in various films like It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Up in Smoke.
• George “The Animal” Steele (1937-2017): Pro wrestler who played Tor Johnson in Ed Wood.
• David Graf (1950-2001): Cadet and then Sgt Eugene Tackleberry in the Police Academy films.
• Billy West (1952-): Voice actor who works widely including as Philip J Fry and many other characters on Futurama.
• Ellen Barkin (1954-): Actor in Buckaroo Banzai, The Big Easy, and Switch.
• Jon Cryer (1965-): Actor in lots of zany comedies, but here because of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, where he plays Lex Luther’s nephew.
• Martin Lawrence (1965-): Actor in the Bad Boys franchise and much more.
• Lukas Haas (1976-): Actor in films like Johns and Brick, but I most like him in Mars Attacks!
• Claire Foy (1984-): More of a serious actor who was in Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal, which I really like.

Films:

• Horrors of Spider Island (1960): A dance troupe crashes on an island with a deadly spider that infects their manager.
• Beast in the Cellar (1970): Thoughtful horror film about army personnel being murdered by an abused young man.
• Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971): Children turn to witchcraft and grow fur for Satan, which is way better than it sounds.
• Killer Workout (1987): Slasher in a gym where it turns out it isn’t who you think it is; and then it is!
• Hard Boiled (1992): Chow Yun-fat is a badass who takes on a mobster.
• The Thirteenth Floor (1999): VR-based mystery similar to the other 1999 releases, eXistenZ and The Matrix.

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Charlie Chaplin via Wikipedia. It is in the public domain.

Hans Conried was born on 15 April 1917. He long suffered from heart problems and died at 64 on 5 January 1982.

He started working in Hollywood in the late 1930s. Although he worked a lot, he performed mostly very small roles. This improved through the 1940s and 1950s. And in the mid-1950s, he moved to television. He did still make some traditional films like The Monster That Challenged the World.

Conried had a very distinctive voice. As a result, he did a lot of voice work. This included radio through the 1950s. He also formed a long collaboration with Jay Ward. Most notably, he was the voice of Snidely Whiplash in “Dudley Do-Right” and Professor Waldo P Wigglesworth in Hoppity Hooper. He also did a lot of work with Dr Seuss.

Like most TV character actors, he worked extensively but (as far as I know) never as a lead actor. So despite dying relatively young, he racked up hundreds of credits. Still, he tended to steal any show he was in. A good example of this is the season two episode of Lost in Space, “The Questing Beast.”

In it, he plays a kind of Don Quixote character questing after a red dragon. It turns out the dragon is a woman. The episode ends with the two in an almost romantic relationship. In addition to Conried’s excellent performance, the episode is notable for two things. The first is that the dragon is voiced by iconic voice actor June Foray, who worked with Conried on “Dudley Do-Right.” The second is that it introduced the spectacled Basset Hound that showed up almost randomly in later episodes.

Other than providing a playlist of Hans Conried’s animated work (which you can easily find on YouTube), let’s watch this episode of Lost in Space!

Other April 15th Anniversaries

Filmmakers/Scholars:

• Elizabeth Montgomery (1933-1995): star of Bewitched (1964-1972) and made-for-TV films like The Victim (1972), Mrs Sundance (1974), and The Legend of Lizzie Borden (1975).
• Robert Walker Jr (1940-2019): played the commune leader Jack in Easy Rider, the hippy Herby in The Happening, and perhaps most notably the title character in the Star Trek episode “Charlie X. His actor father played the villain in Strangers on a Train, but died of a mishap following a psychiatric incident.
• Michael Kamen (1948-2003): film composer for many psychotronic films, including The Dead Zone (1983), Brazil (1985), Lifeforce (1985), Highlander (1986), Die Hard (1988), and many more.
• Craig Zadan (1949-2018): producer of Footloose (1984) and Hairspray (2007)
• Glenn Shadix (1952-2010): actor in Beetlejuice (1988), Demolition Man (1993), and Planet of the Apes (2001).
• Tom Weaver (1958-): Film historian and author of numerous books about films and filmmakers with a focus on horror and science fiction.
• Emma Thompson (1959-): actor in Nanny McPhee (2005) and Stranger than Fiction (2006)
• Seth Rogen (1982-): actor and director of films like This Is the End (2013) and The Interview (2014); he was also the voice of the title character in Paul (2011).
• Emma Watson (1990-): besides the Harry Potter films, she was in This Is the End (2013) and Regression (2015).

Films:

• The Monster Maker (1944): a mad scientist film featuring Glenn Strange.
• Devil Bat’s Daughter (1946): an evil psychiatrist uses his skills to kill his wife and frame a patient.
• Stage Fright (1950): Hitchcock film where Jane Wyman tries to prove a friend’s innocence; Marlene Dietrich is a femme fatale.
• Crack in the World (1965): scientists crack the crust of the Earth while drilling to the core to create thermal energy and must fix it; starring Dana Andrews.
• Women of the Prehistoric Planet (1966): a spaceship crashes on a prehistoric planet with giant monsters that turns out to be Earth; featuring John Agar and a young Stuart Margolin.
• Curse of the Crimson Altar (1970): AIP film about a man searching for his brother who was killed by a cult; starring Christopher Lee, Boris Karloff, and Barbara Steele.
• Horror House (1970): Another API film about young people in an old house getting murdered one by one; starring Frankie Avalon.
• The Evil Dead (1981): Young people on holiday unleash demons that take over humans.
• The Resurrected (1992): Dan O’Bannon directed this film based on Lovecraft’s The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.
• DarkWolf (2003): A cop needs to protect a half-werewolf woman from a full-werewolf man who wants to mate.
• The Amityville Horror (2005): Ryan Reynolds stars in this remake of the 1979 film.
• The Curse of El Charro (2005): A demon with a machete harasses four young women on vacation for a familial wrong; Danny Trejo is the voice of the Demon.
• The Curse of Lizzie Borden 2: Prom Night (2008): A museum worker kills students at a local college during prom.
• Orville (2009): A man “tames” his wife via torture.
• Scream 4 (2011): The last of the Wes Craven-directed films in this franchise.

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Hans Conreid via Wikimedia. It is in the public domain.

Gerry Anderson was born on 14 April 1929. He died the day after Christmas of Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 83.

He, along with his wife Sylvia, created a number of iconic television shows based on marionette puppetry. Thunderbirds is by far the best known.

Many of my childhood friends loved this show! I wasn’t a big fan. I’m not sure why. I am amazes when I watch them now. They created such a finely crafted show! And it is loads of fun.

What I now most like about Sylvia and Gerry Anderson is Space: 1999. See thorough discussion of the show. They used their abilities with small-scale special effects to combine with an excellent cast to create quite an enjoyable series.

Space: 1999 starred Martin Landau (Rounders) and Barbara Bain plus a bunch of other notables including Barry Morse (Asylum) in the first season.

But what I most love about the show is how scientifically illiterate it is. If you’ve been reading me for a while, you know that one thing I hate is listening to lame science-sounding justifications for bizarre plots. No one cares! It’s great when it’s plausibly done like in The Andromeda Strain. But otherwise, skip it! I glory in the ridiculousness of Space: 1999.

Other April 14th Aniversaries

Filmmakers:

• John Gielgud (1904-2000)
• Henry Freulich (1906-1985)
• Valerie Hobson (1917-1998)
• Joseph Ruskin (1924-2013)
• Rod Steiger (1925-2002)
• Liz Renay (1926-2007)
• Gloria Jean (1926-2018)
• Bradford Dillman (1930-2018)
• Arlene Martel (1936-2014)
• Julie Christie (1940-)
• Lothaire Bluteau (1957-)
• Peter Capaldi (1958-)
• Robert Carlyle (1961-)
• Tom Dey (1965-)
• Anthony Michael Hall (1968-)
• Adrien Brody (1973-)
• Rob McElhenney (1977-)
• Sarah Michelle Gellar (1977-)
• Abigail Breslin (1996-)

Films:

• Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1928)
• Terror Aboard (1933)
• Beauty and the Beast (1934)
• It’s a Bikini World (1967)
• Edge of Sanity (1989)
• American Psycho (2000)
• Scary Movie 4 (2006)
• Fear the Forest (2009)

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Gerry Anderson image cropped from one on GerryAnderson.com under Fair Use.

Ron Perlman was born on 13 April 1950.

You can’t really say that you know his work. He works a lot. On IMDb, he has almost 300 listed credits. And that includes a single credit for 79 episodes of Sons of Anarchy and another for 55 episodes of Beauty and the Beast. His first major role was in Quest for Fire.

But I first noticed him in The Name of the Rose. He played the mentally-challenged hunchback Salvatore. His performance was shockingly believable. I later saw him in The City of Lost Children and assumed he was French! Later, I was shocked to see him in Happy, Texas. He plays a gay Texas Marshal. who gets one of the best lines in the film. “Admire him, son. That is one big dicked cop!”

But he stars in a lot of psychotronic films. He’s great in Alien: Resurrection. He has a small but important role in Blade II. And he does a lot of voice work for animated films and video games. But like I indicated, he works so much it is hard to keep track of.

I know him best for the Guillermo del Toro Hellboy films. I’m not even that fond of them. But they are fun and always worth revisiting.

Other April 13th Anniversaries

Filmmakers:

• Howard Keel (1919-2004)
• Don Adams (1923-2005)
• Stanley Donen (1924-2019)
• Beverley Cross (1931-1998)
• Lyle Waggoner (1935-2020)
• Edward Fox (1937-)
• Paul Sorvino (1939-2022)
• Charles Burnett (1944-)
• Tony Dow (1945-2022)
• William Sadler (1950-)
• Peter Davison (1951-)
• Ricky Schroder (1970-).

Films:

• The Boy and the Pirates (1960)
• The Mountain of the Cannibal God (1978)
• Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
• Iceman (1984)
• Serial Mom (1994)
• Carmilla, the Lesbian Vampire (2004)
• Disturbia (2007)
• My Name Is Bruce (2007)
• Creature of Darkness (2009)
• Haunted Airplane (2009)
• The Final Storm (2010).

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Ron Perlman by Miguel Discart under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Cinemation Industries released the Ralph Bakshi film Fritz the Cat on 12 April 1972. It’s best known for being that animated feature that got an X rating from the MPAA.

You might think that would mean it was pornographic. But it isn’t, of course. It’s just the usual nonsense of the MPAA trying to save us all from seeing anything upsetting. That this: upsetting to a middle-class middle-aged white person who never had an original idea in a lifetime of opportunity.

What’s most interesting about Fritz the Cat is that despite its trappings of the counterculture (sex, drugs, and profanity), it’s actually quite a reactionary film. I don’t especially blame it. This seems to be the natural result of filmmakers who have never thought seriously about politics who are determined to be “edgy.”

It’s always easy to mock the silly people who are part of a group. But that doesn’t result in good satire. “Many people are silly” is not a brilliant insight. Normally, satire needs to come from the inside so that the creator understands the group well enough. Bakshi comes at the subject from a sneering outsider.

But the execution is exceptional. I like Wizards more. But it too has thematic problems. But I’m a big Cheech Wizard fan and Avatar is clearly a rip-off of him. Also, there’s Susan Tyrrell’s amazing voice! But today, it is Fritz the Cat! And here’s a good print to enjoy:

Other April 12th Anniversaries

Filmmakers:

• Ann Miller (1923-2004)
• Alvin Sargent (1927-2019)
• Charles Napier (1936-2011)
• Ed O’Neill (1946-)
• Tom Noonan (1951-2026)
• Andy García (1956-)
• Magda Szubanski (1961-)
• Shannen Doherty (1971-2024).

Films:

• Black Friday (1940)
• Dr Cyclops (1940)
• House of Seven Gables (1940)
• Dead Men Walk (1943)
• Jack and the Beanstalk (1952)
• Cat’s Eye (1985)
• Ladyhawke (1985)
• Fear (1996)
• Frailty (2002)
• Cave Women on Mars (2008).

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Fritz the Cat (1972) poster via Wikipedia under Fair Use.

Lions Gate Films released House of 1000 Corpses to US audiences on 11 April 2003.

It was Rob Zombie’s first feature film. Before that, he made a number of music videos. They are all visually interesting so nothing in his feature film catalogue is too surprising. But his Ozzy video is kind of boring. Still, it shows how well he understands different visual styles.

I’m not a huge Rob Zombie fan. I admire his work. But he clearly doesn’t make films for me. I wrote about House of 1000 Corpses, “This film is everything you expect from a Rob Zombie film: visually gorgeous, plenty of gore, good performances, and a lame script.” They guy just doesn’t care much for characters and plot. Everything is in service to the visuals. And that’s fine. Like I said: I’m not exactly the target audience.

But I do appreciate the visuals, gore, and acting — especially in 1000 Corpses. And he gave Sid Haig some of best roles he got later in his career. He brought in other greats for this one: Bill Moseley, Karen Black, Walton Goggins, Tom Towles, Dennis Fimple, and Michael J Pollard.

House of 1000 Corpses is inspired primarily by Two Thousand Maniacs! But I’ve never heard anyone say this. Obviously, the plot is closer to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, itself inspired by Lewis’ classic. But while Chain Saw is realistic in its black comedy, Corpses and Maniacs are very blunt. And while Chain Saw features characters you can remember, the other two don’t. That’s not a criticism, of course. All three films work.

So, on this 23rd anniversary, let’s watch House of 1000 Corpes!

Other April 11th Anniversaries

Filmmakers:

• Norman McLaren (1914-1987)
• Howard W Koch (1916-2001)
• Joel Grey (1932-)
• Duane Jones (1937-1988)
• Louise Lasser (1939-)
• John Milius (1944-)
• Peter Riegert (1947-)
• Bernd Eichinger (1949-2011)
• Vincent Gallo (1961-).

Films:

• Scarecrow (1973)
• Critters (1986)
• The Toxic Avenger (1986) — general US release
• Anaconda (1997)
• Grosse Point Blank (1997)
• The House That Screamed (2000).

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House of 1000 Corpses (2003) poster via Wikipedia under Fair Use.