|
King Of The Zombies
''King of the Zombies'' is a 1941 American zombie comedy film directed by Jean Yarbrough and starring Dick Purcell, Joan Woodbury, and Mantan Moreland. The film was produced by Monogram Pictures, and was typical of its B films produced by the Pine-Thomas team. Along with flying scenes, the use of zany characters and slapstick efforts were juxtaposed with a spy and zombie story.Weaver 1993, pp. 36-45. Plot In 1941, a Capelis XC-12 transport aircraft flown by pilot James "Mac" McCarthy ( Dick Purcell) flying between Cuba and Puerto Rico runs low on fuel and is blown off course by a storm. McCarthy, unable to pick up any radio transmissions over the Caribbean, hears a faint radio signal. After crash-landing on a remote island, his passenger Bill Summers ( John Archer) and his black manservant/valet, Jefferson Jackson (Mantan Moreland) take refuge in a mansion owned by Dr. Miklos Sangre (Henry Victor) and his wife Alyce (Patricia Stacey). The quick-witted yet easily frightened ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean Yarbrough
Jean Yarbrough (August 22, 1901 – August 2, 1975) was an American film director. Biography Jean Yarbrough was born in Marianna, Arkansas on August 22, 1901. He attended the University of the South located in Sewanee, Tennessee. In 1922, Yarbrough entered the film business working in silent pictures, first as a "prop man" and later rising through the ranks to become an assistant director. By 1936, he was a bona fide director, first doing comedy and musical shorts for RKO which was founded by Joseph P. Kennedy among others. His directorial debut for a feature-length film was ''Rebellious Daughters'' which was made by the low-budget studio, Progressive Pictures in 1938. His greatest success came in the 1940s and 1950s, when he directed comedy teams like Abbott and Costello (five films: ''Here Come the Co-Eds'', ''In Society'', ''Jack and the Beanstalk'', ''Lost in Alaska'', and ''The Naughty Nineties''), The Bowery Boys (five films: '' Angels in Disguise'', '' Master Mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haitian Vodou
Haitian Vodou is an African diasporic religion that developed in Haiti between the 16th and 19th centuries. It arose through a process of syncretism between several traditional religions of West and Central Africa and Roman Catholicism. There is no central authority in control of the religion and much diversity exists among practitioners, who are known as Vodouists, Vodouisants, or Serviteurs. Vodou revolves around spirits known as '' lwa.'' Typically deriving their names and attributes from traditional West and Central African divinities, they are equated with Roman Catholic saints. The lwa divide up into different groups, the ''nanchon'' ("nations"), most notably the Rada and the Petwo. Various myths and stories are told about these lwa, which are regarded as subservient to a transcendent creator deity, Bondye. This theology has been labelled both monotheistic and polytheistic. An initiatory tradition, Vodouists usually meet to venerate the lwa in an ''ounfò'' (temple), run ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment industry worldwide. Given annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), the awards are an international recognition of excellence in cinematic achievements, as assessed by the Academy's voting membership. The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette as a trophy, officially called the "Academy Award of Merit", although more commonly referred to by its nickname, the "Oscar". The statuette, depicting a knight rendered in the Art Deco style, was originally sculpted by Los Angeles artist George Stanley from a design sketch by art director Cedric Gibbons. The 1st Academy Awards were held in 1929 at a private dinner hosted by Douglas Fairbanks in The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The Academy Awards cerem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Dendle
Peter Dendle is a professor of English at Penn State Mont Alto, teaching classes on folklore, 20th and 21st century representations of the Middle Ages, Old and Middle English (language and literature), and the monstrous (in film, folklore, and society). Dendle has written books and articles on a number of topics, including cryptozoology, philology, the demonic in literature, zombie movies, and Medieval plants and medicine. His work on zombies was featured by NPR. Career His education includes a B.A. in English and Philosophy (1990) and an M.A. in Philosophy (1993), both from the University of Kentucky, as well as an M.A. in English from Yale (1991) and a PhD in English from the University of Toronto (1998). In 2007, National Geographic featured some of the research results from Dendle's monograph ''Demon Possession in Anglo-Saxon England''. Other recent works include peer-reviewed articles on cryptozoology, medieval charms, demon possession, gender in Old Norse and Anglo-Saxon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldest film studio in the world, the second-oldest film studio in the United States (behind Universal Pictures), and the sole member of the Major film studio, "Big Five" film studios located within the city limits of Los Angeles. In 1916, film producer Adolph Zukor put 24 actors and actresses under contract and honored each with a star on the logo. In 1967, the number of stars was reduced to 22 and their hidden meaning was dropped. In 2014, Paramount Pictures became the first major Hollywood studio to distribute all of its films in digital form only. The company's headquarters and studios are located at 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, California. Paramount Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America, Motion Picture Associ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wright Cyclone
Wright Cyclone was the name given to a family of air-cooled radial piston engines designed by the Wright Aeronautical Corporation and used in numerous American aircraft in the 1930s and 1940s. Background The Wright Aeronautical Corporation was formed in 1919, initially to develop liquid-cooled Hispano-Suiza V8 engines under license. The Corporation's first original design, the R1, was also the first successful high-powered radial in the USA. Funded by contracts from the US Navy for new air-cooled radials, Wright started a new design (initially called the P2) in 1924. The resignation of Frederick Rentschler to form the Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Company, along with several key engineering personnel, seriously affected the development of the P2 and it did not go into production. Cyclone family R-1300 Cyclone 7 R-1750 Cyclone 9 A new design was launched in 1926, known as the R-1750 Cyclone. This was a nine-cylinder radial with a displacement of 1750 cu in and internally cooled e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre (; born László Löwenstein, ; June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964) was a Hungarian and American actor, first in Europe and later in the United States. He began his stage career in Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, before moving to Germany where he worked first on the stage, then in film in Berlin in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Lorre caused an international sensation in the Weimar Republic-era film '' M'' (1931), directed by Fritz Lang, in which he portrayed a serial killer who preys on little girls. Of Jewish descent, Lorre left Germany after Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power. His second English-language film, following the multiple-language version of ''M'' (1931), was Alfred Hitchcock's '' The Man Who Knew Too Much'' (1934), made in the United Kingdom. Eventually settling in Hollywood, he later became a featured player in many Hollywood crime and mystery films. In his initial American films, '' Mad Love'' and ''Crime and Punishment'' (both 193 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Ghost Breakers
''The Ghost Breakers'' is a 1940 American mystery/horror comedy film directed by George Marshall and starring Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard. It was adapted by screenwriter Walter DeLeon as the third film version of the 1909 play '' The Ghost Breaker'' by Paul Dickey and Charles W. Goddard. Along with the Abbott and Costello films ''Hold That Ghost'' and ''Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein'' and Hope and Goddard's own '' The Cat and the Canary'', it is cited as a prime example of the classic Hollywood horror-comedy. Plot The film opens in 1940 Manhattan during a violent evening thunderstorm. From a radio network's studio, broadcaster Larry Lawrence exposes the crimes of underworld boss Frenchy Duval. In her hotel suite, while listening to Lawrence on the radio, Mary Carter is visited by Mr. Parada, a sinister Cuban solicitor. He delivers her the deed to her inheritance—a plantation and mansion in Cuba. Despite Parada's objections, Mary decides to travel there by ship to ins ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bela Lugosi
Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó (; October 20, 1882 – August 16, 1956), known professionally as Bela Lugosi (; ), was a Hungarian and American actor best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in the 1931 horror classic ''Dracula'', Ygor in ''Son of Frankenstein'' (1939) and his roles in many other horror films from 1931 through 1956. Lugosi began acting on the Hungarian stage in 1902. After playing in 172 different productions in his native Hungary, Lugosi moved on to appearing in Hungarian silent films in 1917. He had to suddenly emigrate to Germany after the failed Hungarian Communist Revolution of 1919 because of his former socialist activities (organizing a stage actors' union), leaving his first wife in the process. He acted in several films in Weimar Germany, before arriving in New Orleans as a seaman on a merchant ship, then making his way north to New York City and Ellis Island. In 1927, he starred as Count Dracula in a Broadway adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel, mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laurence Criner
Laurence Criner (19 July 1898 - 8 March 1965) born John Laurence Criner, occasionally credited as J. Lawrence Criner, was an actor in the United States. An African-American, he had numerous film roles including as the male lead and star. He was a member of the Lafayette Players and worked at Norman Studios in Jacksonville, Florida where he starred in two of their race films. He later worked at African American studio Million Dollar Productionshttp://normanstudios.org/films-stars/norman-players/laurence-criner/ The Smithsonian Institution has a lobby card for ''The Flying Ace''. The Library of Congress has a movie poster of '' Life Goes On'' that features an insetimage of Criner. The National Museum of African American History has a herald for ''Flying Ace''. Theater *''Meek Mose'' (1928), credited as J. Lawrence Criner Filmography *''The Flying Ace'' (1926) as Capt. Blly Stokes *'' The Millionaire (1927 film)'' *''Black Gold (1928 film)'' *''Black Moon'' (1934), as high pri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Madame Sul-Te-Wan
Madame Sul-Te-Wan (born Nellie Crawford; March 7, 1873 – February 1, 1959) was the first black actress to sign a film contract and be a featured performer.Lowe, Denise. ''An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Women in Early American Films'', Haworth Press, p. 504, (2005) She was an American stage, film and television actress for over 50 years. The daughter of former slaves, she began her career in entertainment touring the East Coast with various theatrical companies and moved to California to become a member of the fledgling film community. She became known as a character actress, appeared in high-profile films such as ''The Birth of a Nation'' (1915) and ''Intolerance'' (1916), and easily navigated the transition to the sound films. In 1986, she was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame. Early life Nellie Crawford was born in Louisville, Kentucky, US to former slaves Cleon De Londa and Silas Crawford. Her father left the family early in her life, and her mother be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
