Classic motion pictures and Lifestyle with a dip into the underside, the seedy and off beat through the eyes of Canadian Writer TERRY SHERWOOD.
This gorgeous 456 page volume is available with two of my essays. Promotional materials alone from Europe and North America male this a welcome addition as a viewing guide or just to dip into. Volume is available here at https://webelongdead.co.uk/product/a-pictorial-history-of-hammer-horror/
https://i.imgur.com/DBZdPEe.jpg Months back I published a writing on my companion Horror media site SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET regarding how I feel the 'final Girl' syndrome is long over due to be replaced. I submit it is a marketing ploy that has become the lazy way for some film makers to tell their stories. With the... Continue Reading →
https://i.imgur.com/0AFqB32.jpg When I see the Warner Brothers/ Vitaphone title card at the beginning of a picture I foresee a delightful excursion into early sound film making, often with delightful evil or good characters. Camera movement will either be minimal or have some new process in miniatures along with a tracking shot through a window. UNION... Continue Reading →
https://i.imgur.com/OFxXQdo.jpg Most of today’s comedies lack style, and instead substitute clever dialogue, and a joke set up with a punchline with idiotic base situations done by actors who have no clue of timing or delivery. Style and ideas came from Europe and that remains true to a point. The world was different in 1958... Continue Reading →
https://i.imgur.com/qbj2YIv.jpg This story is one of the most filmed in the Horror genre: even more than Phantom of the Opera. For many, the most celebrated version remains the 1932 one with the effective Fredric March from Paramount Pictures. What of new interpretations of the story and characters? A television version was done in 1968, filmed... Continue Reading →
https://i.imgur.com/q7A4OpG.jpg He is one of the faces you have seen many times. He makes the unbelievable believable. The ‘he’ is British born Donald Pleasence with a bald head, a penetrating stare, and an intense voice. Fame would come as he specialized in insane, fanatical, or evil characters, including the title role in Dr Crippen (1962),... Continue Reading →
https://i.imgur.com/REM7hLE.jpg Una O Connor was born Agnes Teresa McGlade, 23 October, 1880 in to a Catholic Nationalist family in Belfast, Ireland. Una tread the boards, working extensively in theatre before going to Hollywood and becoming a character actress in film and in television. She would often be the quirky wife, wise cracking housekeeper or servant.... Continue Reading →
The name Brigitte Bardot conjurors up contrasting images of blonde hair for some and animal activism for others. Bardot was ahead of her time in the sixties: a time filled with blondes, including Marilyn Munroe. Unlike Munroe, Bardot was not at the mercy of a system that did not know what to do with her.... Continue Reading →
The eternal California sun high in the sky. The beaches, the surf. All offering variations of the lifestyle made famous in the Sixties. The climate of Hollywood has not changed much from when film was younger. The idealism of the dream may have changed for some, but the allure remains strong. Actors, technicians and writers... Continue Reading →
These days do seem like a war, or the closest we may ever get to a similar condition. One gives up things, can’t do things we normally do as we all know. To some, it seems futile or they don’t understand why we need to do certain things for the greater good. I am... Continue Reading →
STARDUST AND SHADOWS 
