The Monster And The Girl
''The Monster and the Girl'' is a 1941 American black-and-white horror film directed by Stuart Heisler and released by Paramount Pictures. Plot The film revolves around a small-town church organist named Scot Webster ( Philip Terry) attempting to save his sister, Susan (Ellen Drew) from the clutches of big city gangster W. S. Bruhl (Paul Lukas). When one of Bruhl's gang members is double-crossed in Bruhl's rented room, and killed by a gunman, the man tosses him the gun and disappears. Scot is tried and executed. A scientist ( George Zucco) salvages his brain and transplants it into a gorilla. Using the strength of his new, bestial body, Webster begins stalking the gangsters to exact his revenge. Cast Production ''The Monster and the Girl'' was developed under the title of ''Dead On Arrival'' and was written as ''D.O.A.''. After the release of Michael Curtiz's film '' The Walking Dead'' in 1936, a few films combined genre themes of crime films and science-fiction horror. The ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Stuart Heisler
Stuart Heisler (December 5, 1896 – August 21, 1979) was an American film and television director. He was a son of Luther Albert Heisler (1855–1916), a carpenter, and Frances Baldwin Heisler (1857–1935). He worked as a motion picture editor from 1921 to 1936, then worked as film director for the rest of his career. Heisler directed the 1944 propaganda film ''The Negro Soldier'', a documentary-style recruitment piece aimed at getting African-Americans to enlist in the U.S. military during World War II. He found commercial and critical success in the late forties directing Susan Hayward in two of her breakthrough performances. He received an Academy Awards, Oscar nomination in 1949 for his contribution to the visual effects of the film ''Tulsa (film), Tulsa''. Partial filmography As editor *''The Love Light'' (1921) * ''They Shall Pay'' (1921) *''Cytherea (film), Cytherea'' (1924) *''Tarnish (film), Tarnish'' (1924) * ''The Silent Stranger (1924 film), The Silent Stranger'' ( ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Phillip Terry
Phillip Terry (born Frederick Henry Kormann, March 7, 1909 – February 23, 1993) was an American actor. Early years Terry was born in San Francisco, California, the only child of German Americans, Frederick Andrew Kormann and Ida Ruth Voll. His father was a chemical engineer in the oil fields who moved often. To ensure he received a stable education, his parents sent him to live with relatives in New Jersey and attend school while they travelled. He attended grade school in Glendale, California. (A 1945 newspaper item reported that Terry "had elementary education in various schools in the oil country around Texas and Oklahoma.") He attended Iona High School in New York and Sacred Heart College in San Francisco. During the holidays, he would return to his parents in such places as Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and Burkburnett, Texas. When he completed high school, he rejoined them for good. He worked for a time in the oil fields as a roustabout, then a tool pusher and rig builder. Wh ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Monster Movie
A monster movie, monster film, creature feature or giant monster film is a film that focuses on one or more characters struggling to survive attacks by one or more antagonistic monsters, often abnormally large ones. The film may also fall under the horror, comedy, fantasy, or science fiction genres. Monster movies originated with adaptations of horror folklore and literature. Typically, movie monsters differ from more traditional antagonists in that many exist due to circumstances beyond their control; their actions are not entirely based on choice, potentially making them objects of sympathy to film viewers. Traditional concepts The most common aspect of a monster movie is the struggle between a human collective of protagonists against one or more monsters, who often serve as the antagonistic force. In Japanese cinema, giant monsters known as ''kaiju'' often take up this role. The monster is often created by a folly of mankind – an experiment gone wrong, the effects of radi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Boris Karloff
William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), better known by his stage name Boris Karloff (), was an English actor. His portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the horror film ''Frankenstein'' (1931) (his 82nd film) established him as a horror icon, and he reprised the role for the sequels ''Bride of Frankenstein'' (1935) and ''Son of Frankenstein'' (1939). He also appeared as Imhotep in ''The Mummy'' (1932), and voiced the Grinch in, as well as narrating, the animated television special of Dr. Seuss' ''How the Grinch Stole Christmas!'' (1966), which won him a Grammy Award. Aside from his numerous film roles (174 films), Karloff acted in many live stage plays and appeared on dozens of radio and television programs as well. For his contribution to film and television, Karloff was awarded two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 8 February 1960. Early life Karloff was born William Henry Pratt on 23 November 1887, [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Black Friday (1940 Film)
''Black Friday'' is a 1940 American horror film starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. Screenwriter Curt Siodmak would revisit this theme again in ''Donovan's Brain'' (1953) and '' Hauser's Memory'' (1970).Stephen Jacobs, ''Boris Karloff: More Than a Monster'', Tomahawk Press 2011 p 256-257 Plot Dr. Ernest Sovac is taken from his cell for his execution, but is able to give notes to a reporter, which recount his story, as he is led to a chamber. Sometime earlier, Sovac's best friend, bookish college professor George Kingsley, is run down while crossing a street. In order to save his friend's life, Sovac implants part of another man's brain into the professor's. Unfortunately, the other man was a gangster who was involved in the accident and was apparently heading for the electric chair, according to the police. The professor recovers but at times behaves like the gangster. Sovac is horrified but also intrigued, because the gangster has hidden $500,000 somewhere in New York City ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Before I Hang
''Before I Hang'' is a 1940 American horror film released by Columbia Pictures, starring Boris Karloff. The film was directed by Nick Grinde (under the working title ''The Wizard of Death'') and was one of several films Karloff starred in under contract with Columbia.Pitts, 2010, p. 9Stephen Jacobs, ''Boris Karloff: More Than a Monster'', Tomahawk Press 2011 pp. 260–261 Plot Dr. John Garth (Boris Karloff) is on trial for murder after performing a mercy killing on an elderly friend. In the trial, he reveals that he had been researching a cure for aging but had not had time to perfect it before his friend's pain became unbearable. Despite his pleas for mercy, the judge sentences him to be hanged in three weeks' time. As he awaits his execution, Dr. Garth is allowed to continue his experiments, thanks to support from the prison warden (Ben Taggart) and another scientist who is interested in his research, Dr. Ralph Howard (Edward Van Sloan). Using the blood of a recently ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Man They Could Not Hang
''The Man They Could Not Hang'' is a 1939 American horror film directed by Nick Grinde from a screenplay by Karl Brown. It stars Boris Karloff as Dr. Henryk Savaard,Stephen Jacobs, ''Boris Karloff: More Than a Monster'', Tomahawk Press 2011 pp. 246-247 a scientist who develops a procedure for bringing the dead back to life. When he is arrested and sentenced to be executed for murdering a young medical student who volunteered to be killed to test the procedure, Savaard vows retribution on the individuals responsible. Alongside Karloff, the film's cast includes Lorna Gray, Robert Wilcox, and Roger Pryor. ''The Man They Could Not Hang'' is the first in a series of four similarly-themed but otherwise unrelated horror films produced by Columbia Pictures, all starring Karloff, informally known as the "Mad Doctor Cycle." It was followed by '' The Man with Nine Lives'', ''Before I Hang'' (both 1940), and ''The Devil Commands'' (1941). A fifth, '' The Boogie Man Will Get You'' (1942), w ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Crime Films
Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as drama or gangster film, but also include comedy, and, in turn, is divided into many sub-genres, such as mystery, suspense or noir. Screenwriter and scholar Eric R. Williams identified crime film as one of eleven super-genres in his Screenwriters Taxonomy, claiming that all feature-length narrative films can be classified by these super-genres. The other ten super-genres are action, fantasy, horror, romance, science fiction, slice of life, sports, thriller, war and western. Williams identifies drama in a broader category called "film type", mystery and suspense as "macro-genres", and film noir as a "screenwriter's pathway" explaining that these categories are additive rather than exclusionary. ''Chin ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Walking Dead (1936 Film)
''The Walking Dead'' is a 1936 American horror film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Boris Karloff, who plays a wrongly executed man who is restored to life by a scientist (Edmund Gwenn). The supporting cast features Ricardo Cortez, Marguerite Churchill, and Barton MacLane. The film was distributed by Warner Bros. Plot John Ellman (Boris Karloff) has been framed for murder by a gang of racketeers. He is unfairly tried, and despite the fact that his innocence has been proven, he is sent to the electric chair and executed. Dr. Evan Beaumont (Edmund Gwenn) retrieves his dead body and revives it as part of his experiments to reanimate a dead body and discover what happens to the soul after death. Dr. Beaumont's use of a mechanical heart to revive the patient foreshadows modern medicine's mechanical heart to keep patients alive during surgery. Although John Ellman has no direct knowledge of anyone wishing to frame him for the murder before he is executed, he gains an inn ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Michael Curtiz
Michael Curtiz ( ; born Manó Kaminer; since 1905 Mihály Kertész; hu, Kertész Mihály; December 24, 1886 April 10, 1962) was a Hungarian-American film director, recognized as one of the most prolific directors in history. He directed classic films from the silent era and numerous others during Hollywood's Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age, when the studio system was prevalent. Curtiz was already a well-known director in Europe when Warner Bros. invited him to Hollywood in 1926, when he was 39 years of age. He had already directed 64 films in Europe, and soon helped Warner Bros. become the fastest-growing movie studio. He directed 102 films during his Hollywood career, mostly at Warners, where he directed ten actors to Oscar nominations. James Cagney and Joan Crawford won their only Academy Awards under Curtiz's direction. He put Doris Day and John Garfield on screen for the first time, and he made stars of Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, and Bette Davis. He himself ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Emory Parnell
Emory Parnell (December 29, 1892 – June 22, 1979) was an American vaudeville performer and actor who appeared in over 250 films in his 36-year career. Early years Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Parnell trained as a musician at Morningside College, a Methodist institution in Sioux City, Iowa. He spent eight months in the Arctic in 1929, looking for gold in that area's wastelands. He also worked as a telegrapher. Music Parnell spent his early years as a concert violinist. He performed on the Chautauqua and Lyceum circuits until 1930, when he relocated to Detroit, Michigan, to narrate and act in commercial and industrial films. A 1923 newspaper article described an upcoming Lyceum performance of "Emory Parnell, the one man band," saying that Parnell "plays an accordion, the snare drum and base icdrum, all at the same time." During part of the Chautauqua years, Parnell had a family act that included his wife. In 1970, she recalled, " covered every state as well as Canada, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Abner Biberman
Abner Warren Biberman (April 1, 1909 – June 20, 1977) was an American actor, director, and screenwriter. Early years Biberman was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, later moving to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He gained early acting experience as a student at the Tome School for Boys prep school. He also attended the University of Pennsylvania. Career He was sometimes credited under the pseudonym Joel Judge. Death Biberman died at his home in San Diego, California. His obituary in ''The New York Times'' gave his age as 69. He was survived by his wife and three sons. Filmography As actor *1936: '' Soak the Rich'' *1939: ''Gunga Din'' - Chota *1939: ''Panama Patrol'' - Arlie Johnson *1939: ''Panama Lady'' - Elisha *1939: ''The Magnificent Fraud'' - Ruiz *1939: ''Each Dawn I Die'' - Shake Edwards (uncredited) *1939: ''Lady of the Tropics'' - Wardrobe buyer (uncredited) *1939: ''The Rains Came'' - John, the Baptist *1939: ''The Roaring Twenties'' - Lefty, Hally's Henchm ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |