Trailers from Hell

The first Video Nasty came not only before video but from the esteemed Michael Powell, whose career was sidetracked into shorts for The Childrens' Film Foundation by this much maligned and misunderstood rumination on the dark powers of cinema. In the US it was relegated to skinflick houses and grindhouse second features.

The worldwide success of Mario Bava's official directorial debut spurred the brilliant cinematographer on to a new career and made an international star of the entrancing Barbara Steele. U.S.distributor AIP changed the title and claimed it was too scary for anyone under the age of...well, 12.

Jack Rabin and Irving Block were a couple of indie FX mavens whose works ranged from Night of the Hunter to Robot Monster. But one of their most offbeat creations was the giant alien robot Kronos, who wanted not Our Women but Our Energy. On its own terms it's a pretty nifty little picture, with an emblematic 50s sci-fi cast.  

His 1935 "Things to Come" is more prestigious, but famed production designer Wm. Cameron Menzies reached his directorial zenith with this deliberately unreal "B" that has creeped out several generations of kids. The great Art Gilmore narrates a classic trailer for a seminal movie. In SuperCineColor!

An exploitation picture staple was the cutdown feature version of the 12-chapter serial, but they were seldom directed by filmmakers as distinguished as Fritz Lang, who fled Hitler to become a Hollywood success. But in 1960 AIP bought two elaborate 1957 German-made Lang adventures and combined them into one hectic movie.

Another enormous Samuel L. Bronston historical spectacle with big stars and epochal Euro production values, directed by the perennially underrated Anthony Mann, fresh from his being fired from Spartacus.

The truncated third US release (after earlier tries as "Mania'", then "The Psycho Killers'") of John Gilling's 1960 retelling of the Burke and Hare story that formed the basis for Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Body Snatcher". Cut by a reel and a half and aimed at the lowest of brows, this version ends with Donald Pleasence getting a torch in his face.

One of the great comic book movies of all time from the brilliant Italian director Mario Bava, whose visual dexterity was never widely appreciated during his lifetime.  An uncharacteristically elaborate 1967 pop art production for which Bava nonetheless employed his usual lovingly hand-made in-camera tricks.

Hammer competitor Amicus Films found their mojo with this 1964 multi-story horror omnibus, which led to countless iterations of the same formula, including their biggest hit "Tales from the Crypt". The genius of the portmanteau system was that the actors were often needed for only a few days, which allowed for casts that were almost ridiculously classy.

The subtle terror techniques that Robert Wise learned from his mentor Val Lewton are on uncanny display in the creepiest haunted house movie of them all. (The trailer's not too subtle, though.) Compare the original to the lamentable remake to see the difference between art and CGI junk.

Basil Rathbone's coldly obsessed Dr. Cadman looks like a dry run for Peter Cushing's Baron Frankenstein in this florid period monster rally with scary makeups by Gordon Bau. Akim Tamiroff's role was intended for Peter Lorre.

By the time Swedish wrestler and best-selling Halloween mask Tor Johnson made this, his all-time worst picture, his career was behind him and the days of Ed Wood must have looked like Eden. The longest 54 minutes in movies.

Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman's corrosive look at Power in America as typified by an unscrupulous and possibly insane Broadway columnist modeled on Ed Sullivan and Walter Winchell. Brilliantly directed by the underrated Alexander Mackendrick. A must-see.

Universal was the leader in slickly produced 50s genre pix, and here's another eerie desert-set chiller from Jack Arnold with good special fx and creepy makeups. Leo G. Carroll, one of Hitchcock's favorite actors, classes up the joint as the scientist whose serum results in big buggery.

Taking up the lurid mantel of Mario Bava, former film critic Dario Argento rocketed to international prominence with this highly influential giallo which spawned countless imitations. This is the international trailer made for export.

Billy Wilder royally p.o.'d most of the Hollywood establishment with this devastatingly dark yet moving take on the tragic decline of silent movie queen Norma Desmond (an unforgettable Gloria Swanson), pushed aside by an unfeeling industry. One of the all-time greats. "I AM big! It's the PICTURES that got small!"

Everybody's favorite director Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) is dodging bill collectors who want him to pay for King Kong's Big Apple antics and finds himself back on Skull Island with the lovely Helen Mack in this hastily-produced sequel. A family tragedy during production resulted in fx genius Willis O'Brien entrusting some of the animation to assistants.

Stephen Bochco and Michael Cimino were among the writers of fx wizard Doug Trumbull's melancholy 1971 space odyssey, which has taken on belated luster in our globally steam-heated present. One of Bruce Dern's finest hours.

It's pretty much a bromide that if James Dean had not died at his peak he might have ended up like Troy Donahue, but in this emblematic Nick Ray film, released after Dean's death in a 1955 auto accident, he continues to electrify new generations with his raw emotion.

A rather inelegant retitling of Gary Sherman's British thriller "Deathline", originally pitched to the grindhouse crowd but eventually rediscovered by critics and audiences on tv and video. One of Donald Pleasance's finest hours.